The Black Bear of Fairy Tail (UNDERGOING REDUX)
by Spanish Inquisitor
Summary: After a contract gone wrong, a young Witcher of the Bear School ends up on Earthland. Lost and in need of money, he travels to a magic guild in hopes to earn some coin and maybe help him find a way back home. What is this guild you may ask? Why Fairy Tail of course.
1. Chapter 1

Braemar was a small farming village in the kingdom of Redania, and the residents there made a living off the local grain they grew for the domain. It held under a dozen homes for the farmers to live in along with their families, and a small inn where people would relax and drink when they had time.

Striding through the town was a young man riding on a young brown mare. He was a younger man nearing his early twenties, with hair black as a raven's coat that was slicked back to his neck. His skin was pale as an eggshell, his lower face dressed only by the hairs of a slowly growing short beard surrounding his thin lips and covering his high cheekbones and chiselled jawline. Though the most eye-catching thing about the rider was his eyes, they were slit like a cat and the colour of molten amber which seemed to give off an irradiating glow.

He wore a sleeveless forest green gambeson long coat with a long sleeve white shirt under it, a leather chest piece covering his upper torso, with a few leather straps tied around his waist which held a few pouches full of an assortment of potions and bombs. Green and brown leather padded trousers covered his lower regions, and a pair of leather gauntlets and boots sat at the end of his limbs. Just below his neck though lay a strange medallion, moulded from silver into the shape of a roaring bears head, with aquamarine gemstones for eyes.

He was armed as well. On his back rested two swords, one a fine steel blade with the pommel caved to resemble a bear similar to his medallion, and the other being silver with a V-shaped crossguard. Over his shoulder sat a handheld crossbow, while a small quiver of bolts rested at the back of his hip.

This wasn't just any man, but a Witcher of the Bear School.

Recently, The Witcher He received word that the farming village needed some help from some curse or monster. Crops have begun to rot and die along with animals both tamed and wild, along with other bad omens. It doesn't end there, as peasant children along the ages eight and younger have seemingly been scooped up and kidnapped from their families and have yet to show up in the passing days.

The Witcher had a few theories as to what may have caused this to happen, but his musings were cut short as he spotted the outline of the small village slowly closing in.

It was a simple village like many others he had seen. Under a dozen houses made from lumber and straw sat across from one another, and a collection of men and young boys could be seen working the small fields not too far away.

The Witcher rolled the rains of his horse, making the steed to pick up the pace a bit as he wanted to get the job done as soon as possible, small flocks of hens and goose making way as he struts into the village.

'The contract said to look for Ahab, one of the farmers possible,' He thought as he knew he'd have to ask around.

Strolling into the village, the Witcher spotted a man in front of a small house near the front of the village. The outside area was littered with some bits of smithing equipment, which included a small single man forge, an anvil, and a barrel filled with a variety of armaments.

"Excuse me," The Witcher called out as he approached the man, stopping his horse a few feet away from the fence that wrapped around the man's property, "You the blacksmith around here?"

"Aye, who are you, someone in need of a blade?" The blacksmith asked in a gruff voice.

"No, least not yet. I'm a Witcher who got word of job in this village, said to look for Ahab."

The blacksmith looked up from polishing the axe to see the man in front of him, medallion and eyes giving away who he was.

"Ah, a witcher are ye? Yeah, I know Ahab. Posted a job about our lil problem."

"Our?" The Witcher asked.

"That's right. This whole village is cursed, son. It was Ahab though who decided we put together some money to hire a Witcher. Though some weren't too happy with that, though some could go up and solve this problem by themselves, said they don't need a freak to do their dirty work. I mean no offence, of course."

"None taken," The Witcher said as he waved it off. He used to it worse comments, "But let me guess, a couple of men wanted to go up and investigate but haven't come back, that right?"

"Aye, one of the older boys, Bran his name was, wanted to go look for his brother who was taken. Haven't seen him in over a day now, probably captured like the rest. But anyway, you can find Ahab over by the inn near the entrance," The blacksmith said as he pointed to a building slightly more prominent than the rest of the village houses.

That wasn't good. Typical humans, peasants especially, were terrible candidates for hunting monsters. Rare few even had the strength, knowledge, or even equipment to also try to hold their own against a beast. From what the Witcher had to guess, this Bran sealed his fate the moment he stepped into those woods.

"Thanks for the info, perhaps later we could do business after I'm done with the job," The Witcher suggested, thinking about resupplying on gear after his quest.

"Hey, so long as you got the coin," The blacksmith replied.

The Witcher waved the man goodbye and headed over to the town to find Ahab. He saw the inn a couple of yards away as well as three men standing by the steps in conversation.

"Excuse me, any of you Ahab?"

The three men all turned to look at him, but two out of three of them looked at him in disgust.

"Ah, it's the mutant," One of the peasants, a balding man said in disgust.

"Yeah, you take this one Ahab, come back when he's off," the other peasant with grey hairs said as he spat in front of the Witcher's feet.

As the two other peasants left to go inside of the inn, they left only the Witcher and the last peasant, presumably Ahab, alone to do business. He was a skinny looking man, dressed in a worn-out blue tunic and brown trousers with a bowl haircut.

"So you're Ahab?" The Witcher asked.

"Aye, apologies for the other two. They're not exactly the most, well, welcoming of a sort," Ahab said, trying to be friendly and apologetic.

"It's alright; I'm pretty used to the whole freak show thing. But how about we skip all of that and get down to business. You posted a job request about some curse or monster that was harming your village, causing a few bad omens and taking your children, is that right?"

Ahab nodded his head in confirmation, his face displaying a bit of sadness as he began to explain to the Witcher the problem.

"It's terrible sir, began only a few weeks ago. Our crops began to rot faster than we could harvest them, our calves and birds die within days, and our children, my son included, are disappearing as if it was out of thin air!"

The Witcher held his chin as he listened to Ahab speak, taking in every detail and mentally jotting down notes to remember.

"Alright, and how exactly do your children go missing, were they indoors or go somewhere before disappearing?"

"The woods near here," Ahab said while pointing to the woods, "Sometimes before this all happened we would let the children play a bit while we work, climb trees and have a bit of fun, but never go too far in, don't want to lose sight of them."

"And let me guess, they go too far in, you can't see them, and they don't return?"

"Aye, never to be seen again. Please, sir, I'm begging you to find the children, especially my son!" Ahab concluded, begging the Witcher to put an end to this curse.

Possibly monster taking children from their homes for whatever reason, yep, sounded like a job for a Witcher indeed.

"Right, the job seems right up my ally, but before I take it, we need to discuss my payment."

Ahab nodded his head, expecting this to come up.

"Yes, of course, I understand you witchers can be a bit pricey. I'm looking to offer you three hundred crowns for completing the job. I Don't care how you do it, as long as you end this curse or whatever thing keeps taking our children."

The Witcher thought it over, and the price seemed pretty good. The man didn't look like he could offer that money all by himself either, probably took some help from the other villagers to put the money together to hire him.

"Alright, you've got a deal. I'll take the job."

Ahab clasped his hands and let out a breath he didn't know he was holding in, looking up at the Witcher with a smile on his face.

"Wonderful, thank you sir Witcher, thank you!"

"No problem, just doing my job. I should be finished by the end of the day. But in the meanwhile why don't you see if I could get a seat in the inn when I'm done, could go for a drink later."

He was a hungry man after all and could go for a nice meal after this is all over, provided they don't spit in his food as the last town did.

"Yes, of course. Gods be with you, Witcher," Ahab said, wishing the Witcher luck as he went off to join his friends inside.

With his business concluded for the man, for now, The Witcher turned around to begin his investigation.

'Okay, time to look for some clues,' He thought as he walked off towards the woods to begin his search.

Walking through the woods for a while, the Witcher eventually found what he was looking for, a set of small child tracks about a couple of days old in dried mud.

'There you are,' The Witcher thought to himself as he followed the tracks.

After following the children's tracks for a while, he eventually found a whole new set of tracks much older than that of a child, that looked to be that of an older person, probably female and humanoid. Judging by the lack of the child tracks, who or whatever took them must have knocked them out and carried them back to whatever lair or den they reside.

"Alright, now there isn't any sign of a struggle, nor any blood anywhere. Who or whatever took the children must have carried them from here to their lair judging from the lack of child tracks," The Witcher said to himself.

As the Witcher continued to follow the trail for over ten minutes, his enhanced smell caught a whiff of rotting and burnt flesh close by, another lead perhaps?

'Smells like rotting meat nearby, along with a cooked smokey scent,' He noted.

Following the scent, the Witcher found himself near an entrance to a cave and saw what looked like a person playing against the side of the rocks along with the opening. Looking again with his enhanced vision, he saw the person laying perfectly still.

'Looks like I found Bran,' The Witcher thought as he made his way over to the dead body.

When he was close enough, he was able to see the body of what remained of Bran. The upper half of his chest and face were scorched by, his face seemingly melted off to the point were bone and rotting muscle was visible, flies and other insects going at the free meal as they pleased. He knelt a bit and started to examine him a bit more to look for any leads of what he could be facing.

"Body's about a day old, no signs of heavy impacts but very intense burns," The Witcher mumbled to himself, "Looks like whatever I'm dealing with is capable of using fire, magic perhaps? Can't be an elemental, wouldn't go out in the open nor kidnap children, perhaps a crone or rogue witch?"

Looking past the dead body and towards the cave entrance, the Witcher stood up and walked over to the entry to go down and continue.

'Alright, looks like I'm going in.'

Walking into the dark cave was no problem for him, as his vision was enhanced to be able to see in dark environments, and if needed he could always pop a bit of Cat to get an even better view if things got too pitch black.

Continuing to dive deeper and deeper into the cave, the Witcher spotted what looked like a lite at the end of the tunnel and some room.

'Looks like someone's home,' He thought to himself as he slowed down a bit and sneaked forward.

He eventually made it over to the entrance of the large cavern and hid behind a rock large enough to with him so he wouldn't be visible to whoever was in here.

Looking over the rock, the Witcher got a good look of the room and saw a large room filled with candles and decorative totems. There were wooden tables littered with old books, notes and lab equipment that show recent use. There was also some old looking portal, currently deactivated, which looked old and covered in dust and cobwebs.

However, what caught the Witcher's eyes was what was off to the side of the room. There was a small pile of courses to the side, child corpses, all covered by a bloody sheet that shows both old and new stains. There was also a cauldron in the corner of the room over a fire, with bits of small limbs sticking in bloody puke green water.

'Well, looks like I found the children. Dammit, I was too late,' The Witcher cursed at seeing the dead children.

Looking towards the middle of the room, The Witcher caught the eyes of the culprit and his target, a witch, and by gods was she ugly.

She was a short, plump woman with dirty, thin grey hair, a single dark green eye, and one milky white eye. She had a very with wrinkled and dangly skin that was both bright pink and purple, full of warts, zits, and all other kinds of blemishes. Long dirty claws sat at the end of her toes and fingers, and her mouth had tiny yellow stained, cracked teeth, along with a very crooked jaw. She wore only a dirty and worn out robe the colour of puke that was tied along her thin waist by a leather belt decorated with fingers and toes, and two bracelets adorned just like the belt.

The witch was busy kneeling on the ground, dipping her fingers into a bowl of fresh blood and drawing some circle on the floor right in front of the portal door.

'Strange, never seen a magic circle like that before.'

As the witch seemingly finished drawing the circle, she let out a soft chuckle as she got up and crazily clapped her hands like it was a something to celebrate.

"Yes, yes! Finally, after all this time! Years of research and sacrifice will finally all be worth it!" The witch said to herself as she continued to paint, "Soon, soon I will be off this god's forsaken world and be sent to a land free of this world's prejudice, free of hiding in the dark like a common rat!"

'What's she planning, some ritual? Sounds like she's trying to open a portal, but where?' The Witcher asked himself as he continued to watch the witch.

The witch reached for the bowl to gather some more blood to continue to paint the circle, but as she reached over, she accidentally knocked it over and spilled the blood. Luckily for her, the blood didn't drop directly into the ring, leaving it intact.

"Ah, damn it all to hell! Now I'm going to need to go out and get more. Ah well, it's not all that bad, I remember a small blonde one who looked a bit alone the other day. Perhaps she could give me a bit more."

Deciding to act now, the Witcher agreed it would be best to make his presence known and put an end to this witches scheme.

"Sorry, but I can't let you do that," The Witcher said as he came out of his hiding spot, drawing his silver sword that glowed with red runes.

"What the, who are you!" The witch said, surprised by the sudden intrusion, "How dare you to step foot in here!"

"I've been hired by the villagers to hunt down the monster responsible for the bad omens and taking children, and by the looks of it, I just caught you red-handed, literally."

The witch snarled at the young man and then looked to see the bear medallion dangling from his neck and cat-like eyes.

"Oohhhh, a Witcher?" The witch asked with interest, examining the necklace, "Never encountered one of yee before, heard plenty about you mutants though."

"Then you should know why I'm here," The Witcher said, pointing his sword at her.

"Ahh, Plan to come and kill me and try to take my pretty little head back to get some bloody coin, aren't you? Gonna try and prick me with that fancy little piece of metal now huh?"

"Aye, that's the plan. Deserve it for what you did to those children you kidnapped and killed, a damned monster you are in my book," The Witcher said, getting into a stance.

"Well, good luck little man, yer gonna need it!" The witch yelled, a raging flame charged in her palm.

Without a second thought, the Witcher dodged out of the way as a bolt of fire flew past him and exploded onto the rock wall behind him.

The Witcher then charged forward and swung his sword at the witch. Her skin as thick and leathery though, as the Witcher swung his sword at her and cut through her shoulder a bit, but still doing a bit of damage as she yelled in pain.

"Arh, die you worm!"

The witch then charged bolts of fire in both her hands and launched them at the Witcher, who dodged away from the incoming spells by a hair. Deciding to fight fire with fire, he extended one of his hands out and created an Igni sign, causing embers to fly out and hit the witch, causing her skin to burn.

"AHHH, you fuck!" She cried, "When I get my hands on you-"

"You won't!"

The Witcher swung his sword, and the witch tried to bock it on instinct using her arm, which was sliced cleanly off and fell to the ground, causing her to scream in pain and furry. He then made another sign, Award, causing the witch to be blown back by a massive telekinetic blast and knock into the table behind her, causing mixtures of alchemic liquids and ingredients to be knocked off the table and flow towards the blood circle, causing it to glow.

"You... You... You dammed filthy fucking son a whore worm!" The Witcher yelled in a fury.

"Famous last words," The Witcher taunted, preparing to end the witch's life and take her head.

However, just as the Wither as about to chop off her head, a loud boom echoed through the cave, causing him and the witch to look back to see the magic circle now glowing bright gold, before suddenly the portal gate activated, creating a glowing golden vortex to appear.

"No, it cant be," The witch groaned, seeing the portal come to life.

The portal seemed to grow brighter and brighter, magical energy starting to radiate off of the stone gates like lighting. Suddenly it was like a raging hurricane was spurting from the vortex, sucking in everything not chained to the walls and floors. That included the Witcher, who found himself digging his heels into the storey in an attempt to avoid getting sucked in.

However, the floor was still wet with blood, and the Witcher lost his footing and was sucked into the portal, the last thing he heard was the echoing yells of a dying witch crushed under the stone of a collapsing cave.

When the light faded from the cave, the Witcher was there no more, and all that was left from the hag was nothing but a smoking pile of ash in the middle of a dirty cave that begun to collapse on itself.

 **[END]**

 _ **{THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN REVISED AS OF 06/23/2019}**_


	2. Chapter 2

When the Witcher opened his eyes, he no longer was greeted with the sigh of the storey surface of the cave, but the sight of a dark blue sky with the full moon slowly rising past the treelines of a forest.

He looked around to see that he was indeed no longer in the witch's cave, and was outside somewhere lying on the grass of unfamiliar terrain. He managed to pull himself to his feet and saw that he had everything on him, and looked around to see if perhaps the witch was about, but was not and probably back in the cave either dead or bleeding out.

"What happened?" He muttered to himself as looked around, trying to get a feel for the area.

The air smelt different, cleaner and much more crisp like that of a colder climate. The winds blew more on his coat, and the sounds of owls and scurring nocturnal animals hit his ears.

'Where am I' The Witcher asked himself.

Desiring to know where he was, the Witcher figured the only thing to do was stop asking himself questions, and begin searching for answers. Deciding to wander for now in the hope of finding civilisation, he chose a random direction and started walking.

As he struts through the woods, the Witcher began taking in the local flora. The trees matched nothing like those in Redania, and the wildflowers at his feet were much more vibrant and colourful.

'Am I even in Redania anymore?' He thought to himself as he continued to walk.

Suddenly, the Witcher's enhanced senses kicked in once more, picking up the sound of screaming and a faint scent of blood coming not too far away.

'Trouble?' He thought as he ran.

Following the sound, the Witcher looked up ahead to see what looked like a small village of a sort, with a few figures running around while screaming.

As the Witcher ran from the trees and into the village, he saw civilians fleeing for their lives from a massive monster that he has never seen before.

It was a sizeable ape-like beast with green fur all over its body, feet, face, while the chest was a light shade of lavender. It had very long pointed ears like an elf, a cone-shaped tip on its head, and a very long chin though the weirdest thing he noted about the creature was the pink hearts that ran along the beast's massive arms.

'The hell kind of monster is that?'

"AHHHH!" A voice yelled out, that of a woman.

Looking towards the monster, the Witcher saw that it had a young woman, one with long auburn hair with, tears in her eyes, in the hands of the beast. It didn't appear to be trying to kill or eat her but instead appeared to be looking at her with what he assumed was lust.

Acting quick, the Witcher pulled his crossbow from his back and aimed it at the monster, setting his sights and pulling the trigger. The sharp bolt flew through the air and made a direct hit into one of the ape's eyes, causing it to drop the woman in its hand and hold its eye in pain as it roared and stumbled.

The Witcher than ran forward as fast as he could, his silver sword was now in hand and performed a quick slash against the ape's chest, causing it to rear back and cry in pain.

"Get out of here!" He yelled at the woman.

The woman nodded and gave a quick thank you as she got to her feet and ran away as fast as she could away from the two.

"Ahhh! stupid man stop me from getting a woman, me angry!" The ape yelled, surprising the Witcher due to its ability to speak.

"Hm, so you can speak," The Witcher noted at the dialect, similar to that of a troll.

"WAGH! I gonna crush you!"

The ape monster roared as it ran forward, first armed and ready to pound his opponent into the earth, but the Witcher cast Aard, causing a massive telekinetic last slamming into the beast and stopping its charge.

The Witcher saw that the monster was open and rushed at him to begin his attack. The ape tried to stop the hunter by attempting to grab him, but the lack of depth perception made it hard for it to be able to catch him and was holding it's hand out near him. The Witcher avoided the limb and quickly cut the beast's wrist with his blade, making it yell in pain as it promptly backed up while holding its bleeding wrist. The Witcher then moved behind the creature and starting swinging at it's back, making quick cuts into its hide.

Trying to shake the Witcher off, the ape swung his undamaged hand back to try and knock him away, but he rolled out of the way in time to avoid it, but still got him away so that it could turn it's back away from him and face him.

"Man hurt me, man gonna hurt bad!" The ape yelled at the

"Come at me then you piece of filth," The Witcher taunted, readying himself for whatever the monster had in store.

With a roar that shook the area around them, the ape charge with all the might it could muster while it was hurt, arms raised high as it ran trying to slam the Witcher dead into the earth.

As the ape closed the space between them and brought it's arms down hard, The Witcher cast a Quen sign causing a bright orange dome to cover his being and shield him from the blow. When the ape's fist crashed into the shield, it exploded and released a blast of energy that caused the ape to stumble back, leaving him wide open as the Witcher ran forward and began unleashing a whirlwind of blows against its chest, cutting deep into its skin with every strike.

With a vigorous cry, the Witcher backed up a bit before thrusting his sword directly into the monster's belly, and with high strength cut the beast open like a can of worms as blood and guts came rushing out. The ape fell to its knees, roaring in pain and holding its stomach to try and keep it's internal organs inside. While it did so, the Witcher rose his sword up before stabbing it into the ape's jugular before tearing it out, causing blood to fall like a waterfall down its neck and body before collapsing to the ground while gurgling on its blood.

Backing away from the giant now dead ape, the Witcher watched as its body spasmed a few times before going ultimately still, no longer a threat to the town.

Turning around, he watched as the townsfolk came out from their hiding spaces and homes, whispering and gazing at him and the headless beast that was threatening their town only a moment ago.

"Did you see that he killed it, he killed the Vulcan!"

"He was so fast, and those weapons!"

"Could he be a mage, that was magic he used during the fight, right?"

"Is he a member of a magic guild?"

As the Witcher listened to the townspeople mumbling about with his hearing, he watched as some of the people gave way as a small figure came in front of them and quickly made his way over to him.

He was a short older man that didn't even come to the Witchers waist, with short thinning grey hair and blue eyes and wearing some black suit.

"You, did you just kill that Vulcan!?" He asked.

"You mean the ape?" The Witcher asked while pointing his sword at the course, "Aye, what of it?"

"Come with me quickly! I need to talk to you at once!" The man said quickly, attempting to grab the Witcher's wrist, only for him to slap it away.

"Hold on a minute, who are you and what's going on?"

"There's no time, come on!" The man pleaded as he ran, which the Witcher decided to follow to get some answers.

After being dragged by the older man, the two eventually found himself in a large house was the Witcher saw the woman he saved standing in the hall.

"Papa!" The woman cried as he ran over to him and knelt to hug him.

"There there Elizabeth, are you alright, that Vulcan didn't hurt you or anything did he?" The Older man asked.

The woman shook her head as she still held onto her father.

"No, I was lucky to be saved by a man, he showed up in time to-oh it's you!" the woman yelled a bit, just now noticing the Witcher behind her father.

"Hey," The Witcher said while raising his hand slightly.

"Elizabeth dear, this here's the man who just saved our town, I believe he can be the solution to our problem," The man said, addressing the young woman.

"You think so?" She asked as she turned to the cat eyes young man, "Thank you for saving me, I thought I was going to be a goner or... worse," she shivered a bit, terrible thoughts invading her mind, "But anyway, I'm Elizabeth, could I possibly know you're name?"

"Arthur, Arthur of Kaer Trolde," The Witcher introduced,

"Arthur of Kaer Trolde huh? Well, you have my thanks. If not for you, I fear my daughter would be taken by those damned Vulcans and be used for things I don't even want to think about!" The man said as he clenched his fists at the thought, "Oh but where are my manners, the name's George, I'm the mayor of the village, and this here is my daughter Elizabeth."

"Hello again," Elizabeth said while giving Arthur a warm smile.

"Well it's nice to meet you both, but I'd rather know why you dragged me here?" The Witcher asked, "And I also have a few questions I have to ask you first."

"Straight to business, eh? Well alright, but not here, follow me, and I'll take you to my study where I'll explain everything," George said as he led the Witcher to his study with his daughter coming along.

When they reached the office, the elder sat behind his large wood desk while the Witcher stood in front.

"Before we begin, I have a few questions if you don't mind."

"Very well boy, ask what you will and I'll answer what I can, but I prefer we be quick about it if you don't mind," George said, hoping that Arthur wasn't going to take too long.

"Alright, how about where am I exactly, last I remember I was in a cave fighting against a witch?"

The mayor and his daughter looked at Arthur with a raised eyebrow before answering.

"You're in the village of Dandelion Mr Arthur, in Fiore," He answered.

The Witcher raised his brow in thought, never before heard of this 'Fiore', at least not in the northern kingdoms. Could it possibly be a province in the Nilfgaardian empire?

"Okay, but where exactly is Fiore? I'm afraid I've never heard of the country before. Is it a part of Nilfgaard?"

"Nilfgaard? Are you perhaps from another country?" Elizabeth asked.

Arthur put this into thought. How could these people not know of Nilfgaard? It was one of the largest superpowers in the world.

He thought back to the cave, back to what the witch was saying before he intervened.

'Soon, I will be free from this gods-forsaken world and be sent to a land free of this world's prejudice!'

Remembering the witch's spell, Arthur came to two possible conclusions.

The first that somehow he was possibly transported to some other continent on the other side of the world perhaps were they haven't heard of the kingdoms, witchers, and all.

The second, which somehow for some reason made more sense for him, was that he was transported to not another continent, but another world.

Now to some ordinary folk, the idea of another world would sound like pure madness, but it wasn't. It wasn't exactly common knowledge, but there were other worlds out there parallel to his. That's the idea of how monsters came to be. They weren't of this plain, but rather another plain that connected to his, causing what's known as the 'Conjunction of the Spheres', were monsters came to the world by force.

Whichever was the real explanation, Arthur decided to go with the fact that he was just from another continent since he doesn't want to sound like a madman. It wasn't technically a lie after all.

"Aye, I'm actually from a whole different country, probably even from another continent since you haven't ever heard of the Nilfgaard," Arthur said.

His little half-truth seemed to work, as the elder and his daughter didn't look to suspect a thing and was going along with it.

"Oh my, from a whole new continent? What exactly are you doing here then?" Elizabeth asked curiously.

"To be honest, I wasn't even planning on coming here. I was actually on another job trying to investigate a witch who had caused some trouble for another village. We ended up fighting, and I can't exactly remember how, but some ritual she was doing activated and the next thing I know I'm in the forest, rest is history."

"Well, that's quite the tale if I were to say," The mayor commented, "Though if that's all the questions you have, I would like to move onto a more worrying topic."

"Alright, go on," Arthur said.

"You see our village has been under siege by those Vulcans for over a week now. Every so often they like to come over one by one and terrorise us, threaten to take our women and start destroying things unless we provide them with food. Unfortunately, we have no fighters or people willing to stand up against them in our village, so we had no other choice but to accept. Days went by as the Vulcans would come by and take tons of our stocks, leaving our people to go hungry and without food."

The mayor went silent for a second, remembering the hard times that followed after the Vulcan's came to his village.

"So when one of them came by earlier expecting us to give them their share, we, unfortunately, couldn't provide as they had taken so much already. When we tried to explain why we couldn't give them what we want, the Vulcan went on a rampage and almost ran off with my dear Elizabeth. But then you came and saved the day, but frankly, I fear that when that Vulcan you killed doesn't come back to its group, they'll come into our village to investigate and start destroying everything."

"So let me guess, you want me to take care of these Vulcans and solve your monster problems?" Arthur guessed.

"Exactly, you managed to take on that Vulcanon all by yourself, so you're the only one at the moment who can help us."

"Well, you're in luck, hunting and killing monsters is what I do. However I'm going to expect payment for this, and I'm not very cheap, especially after what happened to me recently," Arthur said, remembering that since he was probably thousands of miles away or more, he would not be getting paid from his previous contract.

"Yes, of course, I wouldn't expect anything else. That's why I'm willing to offer you two hundred and fifty thousand jewels if you take care of our problem."

Arthur almost fell out of his chair from shock as he heard the mayor's proposal.

"Wait a minute, two hundred and fifty thousand jewels? how the hell can you have so many gems to offer me?" Arthur asked in surprise.

The mayor and his daughter looked at Arthur with a bit of surprise and shock, but then remembered that he was of a foreign land and probably had no idea that the elder meant jewel as in Fiore's currency.

"Two hundred and fifty thousand gems? No, my boy, I said Jewels, as in the currency of Fiore."

"Oh, forgive me, I was under the impression you were offering me two hundred and fifty literal jewels as payment," Arthur said a bit sheepishly.

The mayor looked at the man a bit confused, but just shrugged and waved it off.

"Don't worry boy, though I got to say you had me a bit confused there if I had over two hundred and fifty gems we probably wouldn't even have to worry about those Vulcans from all the security I can hire," George said jokingly.

"Right, sorry."

"No need to apologise, but moving on, what do you say, my boy, will you take up my offer?"

Thinking it over the offer sounded pretty nice, although he had no information on these Vulcans, and had already just finished his other contract, he doubted he was going to receive payment from that anytime soon. And while he was unfamiliar with the currency of Fiore, two hundred and fifty thousand sounded like a lot of money that he could use in this country.

"Alright, I'll take the job."

The mayor looked at the Witcher with stars in his eyes, and reached over the table and enveloped him in a crushing hug while tears poured from his eyes.

"Oh thank you thank you! You truly are a blessing thank you!" He cried, being overdramatic again.

"Please stop hugging me," Arthur said, finding the whole scene to be a bit awkward and to overdramatic.

* * *

After managing to pry the mayor off himself, Arthur found himself walking through the woods for the third time today. The Witcher found himself getting a sense of deja vu as he spent a few moments looking for any more clues leading to the Vulcan's den before he spotted large footprints embedded into the search that looked like the same creature made them.

'Tracks look pretty fresh, no less than a few hours old, must be getting close,' He thought to himself.

Arthur followed the tracks for a good twenty minutes before he caught the scent of a hairy musk entering his musk.

'smells like sweat and fur, must be the other Vulcans, a couple of them too, at least three of them.'

The Witcher followed the stench for a while before he saw a large clearing up ahead and began to sneak forward and use the bushes for cover.

Peaking into the clearing, Arthur saw three Vulcans, just like the one he killed, all sitting down under a rocky cliff seeming only to be minding their own business, scratching each other's backs and eating random bugs and plants like a bunch of primates.

'Okay three of them, the last one wasn't much of a fight, but three on one is a bit of a challenge, I'm going to have to try and pick them off somehow.'

Reaching into one of his pouches, Arthur pulled out a Dragon's Breath bomb.

'These things are covered in fur, so Dragonsbreath should be able to light them up since they're close enough together and hopefully send them into a frenzy.'

lighting the bomb's wick, Arthur counted down slowly before throwing the grenade at the right moment right in the middle of the three Vulcans, exploding and covering them in a thick cloud of green gas.

"Ahh, who do dat!" One of the Vulcans cried out in surprise.

As soon as the bomb went off, Arthur charged right towards the cloud with his silver sword drawn while sticking out his arm to cast Igni. The sparks from the sign flew into the gas and ignited it, turning the cloud into a massive fireball, causing all three of the Vulcans to catch fire and begin to panic and try to put the flames out.

One of the Vulcans seemed to be doing better than the rest and looked over to see Arthur out of the bushes and running towards him.

"What da, man try and attack me, he gonna pay!" The Vulcan cried as it charged at him with his fists, ready to pound him into the dirt.

Arthur jumped out of the way in time as the Vulcan came crashing with its fist into the dirt, causing the earth to crack.

Acting fast, the Witcher spun forward with his sword in hand, and performed a massive slash at the beast, cutting through its shoulder and causing blood to pour out. The creature reared back in pain, holding its shoulder as it cried out in pain, it's wound seemingly stinging with neverending pain from the silver.

"AHH!"

"How you like that silver!" He taunted.

Charging forward, Arthur continued his assault by continuing to cut the Vulcan's body with precise slashes, before delivering one last cut upwards that also managed to knock it back and fall to its knees. The Vulcan was leaning forward a bit, and its throat was just in reach, so Arthur charged forwards and performed a precise cut along its throat, causing blood to erupt from the wound and knock the beast face first onto the ground as it gurgled on its blood.

'one down three to ' Arthur noted as he turned to the other two Vulcans who seemed to put out the flames, their skin visibly burned and missing some fur from the fire.

"Man killed friend, man die!" The first Vulcan yelled in rage as it charged forward with its friend to avenge their fallen comrade.

The Vulcan ran forward and jumped into the air to try and pound him into the earth, but Arthur cast a Yrden trap on the ground. The Vulcan was a big creature sure, but the Yrden trap unleashed a quick bolt of energy that hit the Vulcan straight in the chest, knocking him off balance and causing his massive form to come crashing into the earth below, burnt and damaged by the attack, but still very much alive. It tried to get up to try and beat the man who killed his friend, but the Yrden trap was not done as it continued to blast the ape with more bolts of energy, keeping it pinned for the time being. The second Vulcan meanwhile decided to try and avoid the rap by going around it and managing to avoid the bolts of magic and ran at the Witcher to try and punch with its fists.

"Die, man!"

The Vulcan threw his fist forward to try and hit Arthur, only for him to sidestep the incoming blow while raising his sword above his head, bringing it down on the open limb and cutting it's hand clean off. The Vulcan reared back in pain before Arthur cast unleashed a barrage of quick and precise slashed along the beast's front before casting a large Aard sign, knocking the creature down on it's back. The Vulcan tried to get back up to its feet, but Arthur ran forward with his sword raised high above his head, stepped onto the Vulcans chest and stapped his sword straight through the Vulcan's forehead, piercing through its brain.

'And that makes two,' Arthur thought as he quickly took his sword out of the ape's head and got off its body.

Looking forward, the Witcher saw that the Yrden trap dispersed away, and the last Vulcan managed to get to its feet and glared at him with rage very visibly in its eye. It let out a roar that shook the forest around them and looked directly at the Witcher with its vengeful eyes.

"WAUGH! ME GONNA KILL YOU!"

It yelled as it charged forward with its fists ready, planning to pound its hunter into a bloody puddle. Arthur stood in his place but quickly cast Quen in the form of a dome right as the Vulcan was right in front of him. Its fist clashed into the orange dome before it exploded into a blast of energy that knocked the ape back and caused it to stumble a bit.

He then charged forward with his sword ready, swinging it right at the Vulcan's leg and chopping it clean off with a massive swing. The beast cried out in pain as it's leg was severed from its body and came crashing down onto the earth below face forward. Arthur stepped out of the way from the towering beast, and as it came smashing face forward, he saw that its neck was open. He raised his sword high above his head and let it come down, aimed right in the middle of its neck. The sharp silver blade cut right through the muscle and bone, severing the head from the body and causing blood to shoot out from both ends and make a small growing puddle under it.

Letting out a deep breath, Arthur flicked the blood off his sword and sheafed it behind his back before looking at his handiwork. All of the Vulcans were now dead before him, and his job was done just about flawlessly.

'Well, that was fun. Now to take one of its heads. I can't take them all, but one should suffice as well as my word that I killed the rest. Besides they could probably send someone out to come and check the bodies.'

Deciding to go with the one he had already cut off, Arthur took his trophy hook and hooked it right on the upper part of the mouth, and raised it a bit so he could sear the bottom of it with Igni to stop blood from getting everywhere.

"Now let's see about finally getting paid," Arthur said as he made his way back to the village.

Carrying the severed had with him, Arthur made his way back to the village where he saw all of the villagers come out and look his way. They all saw what he was carrying in his hand, and a few of them gasped while most of the parents of children tried to cover their eyes from the scene.

Soon after, the mayor and his daughter came rushing out, gasping as they saw the head disembodies head of a Vulcan in his grasp. The mayor looked at if for a second and up to the Witcher, before running up to him and crying out in joy, spluttering mixed words of thanks for what he had done.

With the Vulcans now dead and his job done, the village threw a small party in the town Inn were all were coming to celebrate being free from the Vulcans wrath. There were drinking and games, and everyone would come over to Arthur and to shake his hand and give him thanks for saving them, a, while the also getting some more than friendly looks from the young ladies of the village. It was a bit of a surprise to the Witcher that everyone seemed to be celebrating him in this manner. Usually, whenever he finishes a job, he just gets paid and sent away, sometimes without a thank you. But judging the fact that this country somehow hasn't heard of Witchers and probably more magic friendly was perhaps a factor to all of this.

As promised he as given more than his fair share of food for completing the job. He received a whole roast chicken with a platter of fresh fruit all for him, as well as-as many drinks he wanted for the entire night.

After the initial festivities and people began to head back to their homes to turn in for the night, Arthur decided to have a small talk with the mayor to discuss his little problem, that being to find more about this country and if there was a way to get back home. Unfortunately, George had no initial idea of what to do, but he did give him a hint of where he could find answers.

"Fairy Tail?" Arthur asked as he sat at the Inn's bar with George.

"Yes, that's right. It's one of the many guilds throughout all of Fiore and is debated to be the best one as well. It's a wizards guild located in Magnolia a long ways southeast from here. It's about five days walk from here give or take, but there's a small port town, Hargeon, which has a train that could get you there quicker."

"And you think they could help me out?"

"Well, it's the best thing there is. Though there's always the magic council, since your technically a foreigner from an unknown land they'd sooner interrogate you for some reason before helping."

That was indeed something Arthur didn't want to happen, getting caught and arrested by the government and taken into custody. Witchers weren't the best with politics anyway, so best to try and stay low and get to this Fairy Tail guild as best as he could.

"Well, that settles it then, I leave for Fairy Tail as soon as possible," Arthur declared.

"Well I wish you luck then on your Journey Arthur, but first," George said as he reached into his pocket, pulling out an envelope of money, "Your reward, as promised."

Taking the envelope, Arthur opened it to see a massive stack of coloured paper bills.

"As said before those are Jewels, the currency of Fiore, two hundred and fifty thousand all for you. A ticket to Magnolia should cost about a thousand, while you could use the rest for supplies and food when you get to Hargeon."

Nodding his head towards the mayor, Arthur pocketed the money before sitting up from his seat, ready to head off.

"Thanks, but what about Hargeon, how exactly can I get it?"

"Follow the road outside of town, it's a long walk, and if you leave now, you should get there by midday tomorrow. But are you sure you want to leave now, your welcome to stay the night and all."

Arthur thought about it for a second but waved the offer off. It was tempting, but he preferred he get on the trail as fast as he could.

"Thanks, but I'd rather get going as quickly as possible."

"Very well," The elder said, "Farewell young man, and remember that you'll always be welcomed back whenever you like, you're our hero after all."

The Witcher looked back one last time and gave the mayor and anyone else still in the building a small wave, before walking right out the door and into the night.

 **[END]**

 _ **{THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN REVISED AS OF 06/23/2019}**_


	3. Chapter 3

After a full night's worth of walking, The Witcher had finally reached his destination.

Walking up a small hill, Arthur saw a small town in the distance that looked to be a bit bigger than Novigrad, no doubt Hargeon.

Taking a second to admire the view of the town and vast ocean, Arthur continued his hike down into the city, where he would be one step closer to getting to Fairy Tail.

When The Witcher entered Hargeon, he expected to see all the standard sights when you would enter a big city like this. Dirty streets with trash and sick bums lining it, a prostitute at about every other corner hoping to sell herself for a quick Oren, and some poorly made houses full of dirty peasants.

Instead, he was greeted with probably the cleanest city he has ever seen in his life. No hovels made from weak mismatched wood and straw sat outside the city limits, and each house and building was made of beautiful brick and timber and was evenly placed across a full paved stone street. It was also very colourful with the amount of flora planed around the city, and the many pigments of paint used on some of the houses.

The same could be said for the people, who all seemed to wear finely tailored clothes in a wide variety of styles and colours. None appeared sick and dirty and minded their own business as they happily converse with one another and passed by him on the side of the road. A few even greeted him a good morning as he passed them, taking the Witcher by surprise.

"This is, strangely nice," Arthur muttered to himself as he looked around.

As he walked through the town, getting a few odd looks from a few people by his appearance, he suddenly picked up the sound of screaming coming from the distance.

'Trouble?' He thought to himself as he turned down a street.

Turning the corner, Arthur looked to see a large crowd made entirely out of women, all circled something and yelling out.

"Salamander!"

"He's so dreamy!"

"Sign my face!"

"Sign my chest!"

'Salamander?' Arthur thought to himself.

Deciding to see what all the fuss was about, Arthur walked over to the end of the crowd and tapped the shoulder of one of the girls, but then felt the humming of his medallion.

'Magic?'

"What?" She asked, sounding a bit irritated she was being distracted.

Arthur was about to ask this question but stopped as he looked at the girls' eyes, as instead of a normal iris, she had pink romance hearts in the middle of her eyes.

'What the hell?'

"Hmph!" the girl ticked as she saw that Arthur was looking at her, and turned back to what she was doing.

Blinking a few times, Arthur looked to everyone else in the crowd and saw that every one of them had some hearts where their pupils should be.

'What's going on here? some spell?'

Tapping the shoulder of the girl again, he watched as she turned to him back, looking a bit more irritated that she had her attention taken away.

"What!?"

"What's with the crowd, what's going on?"

"What are you dumb!? The great wizard Salamander's here! He's the like sexiest and best mage ever! Now get lost creep!" The girl screeched before turning back to the crowd.

'A wizard? Could he be why the girls are acting like this?' Arthur thought to himself.

Deciding to get a closer look, Arthur pushed a few of the girls over to make his way through the crowd, hoping to see what this 'Salamander' looked like and what he was doing.

As he pushed his way through the crowd, one of the girls nudged him a bit and caused him to accidentally bumped into a rather busty blonde girl.

"Excuse me," He said politely as he went in front of the girl.

As he did so, he failed to see the hearts in the blonde's eyes shatter like glass, returning her will to her.

Making his way to the front, Arthur was able to get a good look at this 'Salamander.'

He looked to be a man in his early twenties, with a short spiky blue hair, black eyes, and a fair skin tone. He wore a white short-sleeved shirt and a pair of light red pants, with a dark purple high collared cape of his shoulders. Though what caught Arthur's interest, was the rings on his hand, one of which was golden with the shape of a heart on it, which appeared to be radiating with magic.

'Must be what's controlling the girls.'

As Arthur was about to talk to this 'Salamander', he stopped as he looked across the crowd to see someone else trying to get through.

It was a young man around his age, with short spiky pink hair and wearing an open sleeveless black and gold trimmed waistcoat, white baggy shorts with a cloth the same colour as his coat tied around his waist, a red long sleeve jacket, and a rather long scaley white scarf around his neck.

"Igneel it's me!" The pinkette cried as he ran to the centre of the crowd, only to stop as he saw the man standing there, "... Who the hell are you?"

"Who am I!?" Salamander asked, sounding a bit offended while the girls all glared at the ignorant boy.

Salamander suddenly stroke a pose, seemingly trying to impress the kid, while also flashing a bright smile that made the girls fawn over him.

"I am the great Salamander, surely you've heard of me?"

Expecting the kid to recognise his as some celebrity, Salamander looked to where the kid was to see that he was gone, and now walking away from the crowd, without a single care for the blue haired mage.

He didn't get far; however, as a few of the girls from the crowd suddenly pounced the kid, rage seeping into their heart filled eyes as they beat the kid to a pulp.

"How dare you!"

"Salamander's a great Wizard! Show some respect!"

"Now now my darlings," Salamander announced, "No need to be so violent, I doubt he meant anything by it."

Once more, the girls are fawned over him, screeching his name out loud, while Arthur meanwhile narrowed his eyes at the mage, not liking how he was acting.

"Her kid, have an autograph," Salamander said as he handed the kid a piece of paper with his signature on it.

"No thanks," Pinky said, only to get grabbed by the girls again and once again beat to a pulp, which Salamander didn't seem to be stopping anytime soon.

Seeing his chance to talk now that the girls were all busy beating up the pink haired boy, Arthur walked over to the mage to clear up something.

"Hey," He said as he approached him.

"Oh my, what's this, a fan?"

"You the one they call Salamander?" Arthur asked, with his arms crossed.

"That, right," Salamander said with a raised brow, a bit put off by Arthur's cat eyes staring into his.

"Well, I was just wondering what a 'famous mage' such as yourself was doing in this town?"

Salamander then smirked, striking another pose, making the girls stop beating up the pink haired kid and pay attention to him.

"Who me? I'm here to show off the wonders of my magic to the lovely people of this town."

He gave a bright smile, the light reflecting off his teeth and making it sparkle, which the girls seemed to adore.

"Right, and showing off your magic involves putting all these girls under your control?" Arthur asked, making Salamander go wide-eyed a bit, "I may be new to these lands, but I doubt taking away these girls wills to lust after you is well within legal boundaries here."

Salamander started to sweat a bit as he watched the black haired boy's cat eyes narrow at him as if trying to read him and find out what he was up to. He then looked back to his girls, to see them all glaring at the black haired boy with hatred. He smirked as he was about to let them have at him before making a quick getaway, but stopped as he caught the sight of the city guards coming down the road coming to see what was going on.

'Dammit.'

"Sorry kid, I'm afraid I cannot answer any questions, as I must be off."

"You're leaving already!?" All the girls asked as they turned to Salamander, forgetting about Arthur and focusing on him.

"Hey wai-"

Before Arthur could stop him, a purple magic circle appeared under Salamander, before a torrent of purple flames lifted him from the ground and causing Arthur to jump back to avoid getting burned.

"By the way, I'm having a soiree on my yacht tonight, and you're all invited!"

Salamander then fled the scene as quickly as he could after the announcement, disappearing into the distance with the girls screaming his name.

"Dammit," Arthur swore to himself, watching as the wizard fled the scene.

As the crowd began to disperse, Arthur picked up the sound of fain moaning and turned around to see the pink haired kid from before, leaning against the side of a wall, covered in bruises and garbage.

"Hey," He called out as he walked over to him, "You alright? Took a nasty beating."

"Don't worry about him, he's fine," A high pitched voice said.

Looking down, Arthur saw a bipedal sky blue coloured cat, wearing a small green backpack and looking up at him.

"...Did you talk?"

"Aye!" The cat said, lifting his arm in the air. the cat then looked up at him, staring into his eyes and gasping a bit, "Woah, are you a cat, man?"

"Huh?"

"You have cat eyes, are you a cat man?"

"...No," The Witcher deadpanned, giving the blue cat a blank look.

Hearing another groan from the pinkette, Arthur and the cat turned to see him getting up and rubbing his head.

"Oh hey Natsu, check out this cat man I found," The cat said as he pointed to Arthur, who sweatdropped at the cat's words.

'Didn't I just tell him I'm not a cat man?'

"Ow, what happened," The newly names Natsu asked.

"You got ganged up by a crowd of women, though not in the way most men dream," Arthur told him.

"Yeah, you looked kind of pathetic. Plus it looks like that guy wasn't Igneel," The cat said with a bit of disappointment.

'Igneel?' Arthur thought to himself, remembering how the pinkette had yelled the man when he came out of the crowd.

"Yeah. But who the hell was he anyway?" Natsu asked as he looked to where Salamander disappeared.

"I don't know, but he was a real creep," A feminine voice said.

Turning around, the trio saw a young girl standing behind them. She had shoulder length blonde hair with a small side ponytail on the right, chocolate brown eyes and pure milky white skin. She wore a sleeveless white and blue trimmed shirt that hugged her ample bust, and a blue mini skirt with a belt tied around her waist that held a whip and a keyring with gold and silver keys.

"Thank you for your help," she said to Arthur.

"Excuse me?"

"Back there in the crowd, you bumped into me and broke me from that man's charm spell before scaring him off after those girls under his control beat up this guy," The blonde said as she turned towards Natsu, "You alright by the way?"

"He's fine, he's had worse," The cat said to the blonde, taking her by surprise.

"Did you just talk!?" she shrieked, in shock at the small creature's ability to speak.

"Aye!" Happy replied, sticking his arm up once more.

'Dejavu?' Arthur thought to himself before looking down towards the cat.

"What are you anyway?" He asked, curiously.

"Happy!" The cat introduced.

"Is that your name?"

"Aye!"

"Oh... Okay," Arthur said with a shrug, figuring that that was probably all he was going to get for now.

"Are you not questioning this?!" Lucy asked the black haired boy.

"Would you believe me if I said this isn't the weirdest thing I've seen?"

Lucy looked like she wanted to say something, but a loud rumbling from Natsu, Happy, sounded off as the two held their bellies.

* * *

After being brought to a nearby restaurant courtesy of the blonde, Natsu and Happy ordered nearly half of the many and also ate like wild dogs who haven't had a bite to eat in a week, with bits of food flying everywhere. Arthur meanwhile just ordered some water since he had a rather large feast last night.

"Um, could you two please slow down a bit," Lucy asked as she tried to dodge all the incoming pieces of food.

'there goes all that money I saved,' Lucy thought in a bit of despair.

"So, Natsu and Happy were it?" The blonde asked, receiving nods from the two stuffing their face before turning to Arthur, "And what was your name again?"

"Arthur," Arthur introduced, moving his head aside to avoid an incoming chicken bone.

"Well, it's nice to meet you all, my names Lucy by the way," The blonde introduced, "And thanks again for what you did back there."

"It was nothing."

"Maybe, but I appreciate it nonetheless," Lucy said with a smile.

"What was that guy even using anyway? That magic couldn't have been legal?" Arthur asked, causing Lucy to frown a bit.

"That was a charm a spell he was using, and your right, those things have been outlawed for years. Whoever he is, he must have spent a fortune on it."

"Probably from the black market no doubt."

"Yeah," Lucy muttered before turning to the man/cat duo, "So what're you two doing in Hargeon? You said you were looking for someone?"

"Aye, we're looking for Igneel!" Happy said as he munched down on a fish.

"We heard a rumour of a Salamander Was coming to this town, so we came to check it out. It turns out it wasn't his thought," Natsu said with a mouthful of food.

"Yeah, but looks like it was a total bust, that guy didn't even look remotely like a Salamander," Happy commented.

"Yeah, I bet he can't even breathe fire like a real dragon," Natsu said, confusing Lucy and Arthur a bit.

"Hang on a minute I'm confused, does this Igneel guy look like a dragon?" Lucy asked.

"No, you got it all wrong. Igneel doesn't look like a dragon; he is one," Natsu clarified.

Lucy just went wide-eyed and slack-jawed at the information, while Arthur nearly choked on his water.

"Did you just say this Igneel is a dragon?"

"Aye," Natsu and Happy said together.

"Breathing fire, scales, wings, all of that?"

"Aye."

"And you know this dragon how?"

"Simple," Natsu began, "He's my dad."

...What?

Arthur couldn't believe what he was hearing. Although he never encountered an actual dragon before on his journey, he knew a bit about them from his studies.

They were supposed to the very territorial beings which were considered by a few to be the greatest enemies of man. They were also rare creatures after being nearly hunted to extinction all the while ago. It doesn't make sense; why would a dragon go out of their way to raise a human child.

"Wait," Lucy said as she though for something, "Why would a dragon just appear in the middle of a town?"

'That is a good point,' Arthur thought as he turned over to Natsu and Happy, expecting an answer.

The two stood up and looked ready to give some detailed information, but as they opened their mouths, they realised something. She was right.

"You're just noticing this now!?" Lucy yelled, causing the two to deflate a bit while Arthur just gave the two a blank look.

Shaking the ludicrous thoughts of the dragon out, for now, Lucy turned over to the black haired boy to see what he was doing here.

"So, what are you doing in Hargeon, Arthur?" Lucy asked the black haired boy, changing the subject.

"I was actually on my way to Fairy Tail, need to speak to the master there," Arthur said, gaining the attention of Natsu and Happy, while Lucy looked pleasantly surprised at him.

"Wait, You're on your way to Fairy Tail too?"

"You on your way as well?" Arthur asked.

"Yes!" Lucy beamed, "I may not look like it, but I'm an aspiring wizard hoping to apply there. They're like the best guild of all time!"

"That so?" Arthur said as he took a sip of water.

Lucy smiled and nodded before realising something.

"Hey wait, if you're on your way to Fairy Tail does that mean you're a wizard?" Lucy asked, interested in what kind of magic Arthur had.

"I know a few small magics, but compared to what any other mage could do, it's just a few tricks. But they do have their uses."

"Oh, so I'm guessing you mainly use your swords?" Lucy guessed as she pointed to Arthur's swords, "Why do you have two of them?"

"Steel for humans, Silver for monsters," Arthur said before taking another bite of his sandwich.

"Monsters?" Natsu and Happy asked at the same time with their mouths still full, interested in the topic.

"Yeah, steel's a good material, but silver has a special effect against monsters and other magical beings allergic to it, makes it easier to fight them."

"Strange, I've never heard of that before," Lucy muttered to herself.

"Well, I can tell you that it works for sure."

Lucy seemed like she wanted to ask more questions but then realised that it was already a bit past one and needed to hit the road.

"Well, I think I should get going," Lucy said, before gaining an idea and turning to Arthur, "Hey, since we're both going to Fairy Tail why don't the both of us go together?"

Arthur looked up at the blonde with a raised brow.

"You sure?"

"Totally. I mean it would be nice to have some company along the way, and you seem like a nice guy."

"Well if you're sure, then why not?"

"Great! Oh, by the way, do you mind if we stop by someplace real quick, I need to pick up something."

"So long as it doesn't take up to much time,"

"It'll be quick."

Lucy then took a few bills from her pocket and placed them on the table to pay for the meal before getting up.

"You coming?" She asked her new companion

"Lead the way," Arthur replied as he followed Lucy out of the restaurant.

"Wait!" Natsu and Happy cried out.

Turning around, Arthur and Lucy saw Natsu and happy on their hands and knees, bowing down to Lucy.

"Thank you for the meal!"

"Quit being weird!" Lucy yelled at the two making a scene, while Arthur just shook his head.

* * *

After leaving the restaurant, Arthur and Lucy found themselves at a small stand on the opposite side of town near the train station.

"Thank you," Lucy said as she paid for her stuff and walked over to the bench where Arthur was at.

"What's that you got there?"

"What this?" Lucy asked as she held up what looked like a thin book, "It's the latest edition of Sorcerer Weekly."

"Sorcerer Weekly?"

"You never heard of Sorcerer Weekly?" Lucy asked, surprised he hasn't heard of it.

"Can't say I have. Is it something related to Fairy Tail?"

"Kind of. It's the main magazine that covers all the happenings involving all the guilds in Fiore, including Fairy Tail," Lucy said as she sat next to Arthur and showed him the magazine, "Check it out, looks like Fairy Tail wiped out a bandit clan a little while ago, but they destroyed several houses in the process."

"That seems... a bit counterproductive don't you think?" Arthur said, not knowing how to put it.

"More like going overboard," Lucy laughed as she turned the page to reveal a centrefold of a beautiful busty white-haired woman wearing only a bikini.

'That is a... surprisingly detailed drawing,' Arthur thought to himself as he looked at the picture of the semi-nude woman.

"Oh wow, it's Mirajane," Lucy muttered as she looked at the woman.

"She apart of Fairy Tail?"

"Yeah, and she's so pretty too," Lucy said with admiration, "I can't wait to get there and hopefully meet her, but I also hope that there isn't some lengthy process you need to complete before you get in."

"Have to see when we get there," Arthur said.

As Lucy hummed to herself while she continued reading the latest news, Arthur's senses kicked into play, as he heard the sounds of footsteps approaching from behind them and in the bushes.

"Whos there?" Arthur called out as he stood up and turned around while Lucy sat there and just looked behind.

"Ah, seems I've been found out," Salamander said as he popped out of the bushes like a gopher.

"You again!" Lucy yelled as she jumped out of her seat and went over to Arthur, who was just about to draw his sword.

"Whoa whoa, hold on there friend," Salamander said as he held his hands out, "No need to get violent."

"What were you doing spying on us?" Arthur asked as he glared at the blue haired mage.

"Me? Well, I was just in the neighbourhood when I heard you two were talking about Fairy Tail," Salamander Answered, "Are you two perhaps trying to get in?"

"What's it matter to you, you creep? Come on, Arthur, let's go," Lucy said as she wanted to get away from this guy.

"Whoa hang on there, Is that a way to speak to a wizard of Fairy Tail?" Salamander asked, a small smirk forming on his face, making Lucy gasp in surprise a bit.

"You're a Fairy Tail wizard?" Arthur asked with a bit of scepticism.

"Of course. And I have a little proposition for you," Salamander said, looking towards Lucy, "You come to my party tonight, and I'll talk to the master about getting you two in."

"I get to Join Fairy Tail?!" Lucy screeched.

"You can't seriously be believing this guy," Arthur commented.

"Think it over, big guy, I'm sure you and your girlfriend will have a wild time," Salamander said with a chuckle.

'Girlfriend?/Girlfriend!?" Arthur and Lucy thought/screeched.

"Wait hold on he's not my-"

"Well, I best be off now, tata for now!" Salamander said as he used his flames to fly away once again, leaving behind a heavily blushing Lucy and sceptical Arthur.

"I don't like that guy," Arthur muttered to himself.

Lucy meanwhile just stood there with a blush on her face at having being called Arthur's girlfriend. She barely knew the guy!

But Shaking those thoughts away, she reminded herself of the bigger picture here, getting to join fairy tail.

"You can't be serious," Arthur said as he saw the look on her face.

"Hey come on now, all we have to do is just put up with the guy for one night and then we're be on our way to Fairy Tail."

"I don't know. I don't trust the guy."

"I get that, but hey, what could go wrong?" Lucy asked with a smile, too focused on getting into Fairy Tail to see the bigger picture. "Now come on, we need to get ready for the party, make ourselves look good."

Arthur just sighed and shook his head as he watched the blonde get up to go and search the market, no doubt for some fancy garments.

"I got a bad feeling about this," Arthur muttered as he followed the girl.

 **[END]**

 _ **{THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN REVISED AS OF 06/23/2019}**_


	4. Chapter 4

"I still think this is a bad idea," Arthur said as he and Lucy were walking to the pier, going to this Salamander's party.

Lucy had decided that for the event that she should try and look more presentable and managed to find herself a lovely long crimson dress that showed off her curves that would make any sane man want to lust after her, along with matching heels and a ribbon for her hair.

"I know you said that already. And you know you could have at least put something nice on," Lucy said as he looked at Arthur, still dressed in full gear.

"Not a fan of fancy clothing, rather wear something I'm more comfortable in. Besides, I don't think Salamander really gives a damn about me, and would rather have a chat with you."

"Don't remind me," Lucy said as she crossed her arms, "But like I said, all I have to do is suck up to this guy for one night, and then the two of us will be at Fairy Tail just like that."

Arthur just grunted, not wholeheartedly agreeing with the plan already thinking of many ways why this is a bad idea and would prefer just going to Fairy Tail themselves. Still, he could at least see who precisely this Salamander was and what he was up to, maybe even get paid if he turned out to be some wanted criminal.

When the two made it to the docks, Arthur and Lucy saw the girls from the crowd all dressed up and getting onto a rather large yacht.

Lucy walked onto the ship no problem, but when Arthur was about to step aboard, two of the crew stepped in front of him.

"Hold it there friend, no weapons allowed onboard. Fraid you're going to have to hand them over."

Seeing as there was no other option, Arthur undid the straps to his swords, along with his crossbow and pouches full of bombs and potions, before handing them to the man. But Arthur was a smart one, and secretly was keeping his skinning knife inside his gauntlet for when this all goes south.

"I'm gonna want those back you know."

"Yeah yeah don't worry, you'll get them back after the party," The crewman said as he handed the Witcher's stuff to his friend, who took them away.

With his stuff taken away, the crew let Arthur aboard the ship with Lucy and looked around to see all the girls from before all seemingly having a good time on the front deck, listening to fancy music and enjoying a drink.

"Having a good time?" A familiar voice asked.

Looking over to the side, Lucy and Arthur saw Salamander walking over to them, a bright smirk on his face as he looked at Lucy.

"I was expecting a bit more diversity," Arthur said as he saw the crowd was entirely made of young girls.

"What can I say, kid, the ladies love me," Salamander said with pride, which made Lucy shiver a bit.

"Anyway," Lucy said as she stood in front of Arthur and looked at Salamander, "How about we talk about getting us to Fairy Tail?" She asked, pushing her breasts together to try and use her sex appeal against him.

"Ah yes," Salamander said as he looked at Lucy, "Why don't you and I have a little chat, get to know you and see if you're Fairy Tail material."

Arthur just narrowed his eyes as he looked at Salamander, already knowing he had something planned for Lucy, before following them to the insides of the ship.

"Hold it there friend," Salamander said as he held his hand out in front of Arthur, "I prefer to conduct my interviews one on one, so you're going to have to wait your turn."

Arthur was about to retort, but a look from Lucy told him that to go along with it and that she was going to be okay, which Arthur doubted, but followed nonetheless.

As Lucy and Salamander left to go 'conduct an interview', Arthur knew that now was probably a good time to see what exactly was going on and try and stop this Salamander and get Lucy out of here.

Deciding to sneak away from the party, Arthur walked off to the side of the ship, where he saw the boat was already midway out to sea, to see if there was some back entrance or something he could use to slip into the ship.

Turning the corner, Arthur walked along the edge of the ship, before stopping as he heard the sound of footsteps that were not his approaching.

Looking in front, he saw two men turn the corner and approach him, each with a smirk on their face.

Arthur was about to turn around to get back into the open but stopped as he saw that two more men turned the corner where he came from.

They had him cornered, at least that's what they thought.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" One of the crew asked.

"Looks like a little straggler. Party's back there bud, whatcha doing?" Another said.

"Just looking to get some alone time is all," Arthur said as he observed the crewmen, "That a problem?"

"Yeah, everyone's supposed to be back on deck, nobodies else is allowed back here."

"That so?" Arthur asked, sensing some hostility in the man's voice, "Then perhaps I'll just be on my way back then."

"Sorry bud, but we got orders not to let you leave," One of the men from the back left, causing the others to laugh at his 'misfortune'.

"Is that so," Arthur stated in a low voice, preparing himself for a fight.

"Sorry, no hard feelings," The leader in the front said with a smirk.

The man walked up to him with a smirk on his face while cracking his knuckles, confident he could pound this kid into the ground.

However, as he was a few feet away from him, the crewman then at him with his fist reared back, ready to punch him in the face. Arthur easily dodged it and created an Award sign with his hand as he pushed it into his attacker's side, the telekinetic blast spending the man off his feet and over the rails, causing him to scream a bit as he fell into the water.

"Shit he's a mage!" One of the other crewmen said.

Seeing the full danger, they knew that they had to now take this seriously, as taking down a mage was no easy feat. Though they were not dealing with a mage, they were dealing with something far more dangerous.

The last guy in front and one of the men from behind Arthur ran at him at the same time, hoping to overwhelm and tackle him to the ground. Arthur, however, saw this coming and knew what to do. Grabbing the guy in the back, he grabbed his hand as he tried to grasp him and threw him over his shoulder and into his buddy.

The other one tried to wrap his arms around Arthur to hold him down. However, Arthur broke out of the hold quickly and pushed the guy back. He then reached for his hidden skinning knife before punching the guy right in his nose, a loud crackling sound being heard as he broke it, sending him down to the ground.

Turning back to the other two, Arthur saw them up and coming at him, one of them taking the lead and throwing a punch aimed right at his face. He blocked it quickly and then rapidly stabbed the man right under his pit. He suddenly grabbed the arm that he tried to punch him with and threw him back, before going to his buddy and slashing him right across the chest, making him stumble back as he held his bleeding chest. Turning back to the other one, Arthur grabbed the man's head with his free hand and then proceeded to stab him right in the jugular with his knife, before ripping it out and letting the man fall to the ground dead.

With only one of them left to deal with, Arthur looked to see the crewman with a bleeding chest charging at him to try and throw from sloppy punch at him, only for Arthur to spin under it and around the man. Now holding his knife in a reverse grip as he held it at the man's throat before violently slitting it, causing blood to come out like a waterfall and the man to drop to the floor gurgling on his blood.

With one man overboard and two dead, Arthur turned over to the one he punched, who was getting up from the ground while holding his bloody and broken nose.

He slowly walked up to the man, causing him to look at him in fear and try to run away, only for Arthur to grab him by the collar of his shirt and throw him against the rail, where he gripped him by the front of his shirt and held his knife to his throat and.

"Talk," Arthur growled at him, glaring into the crewman's eyes with his.

"W-what do you want!?" He yelled.

"Quiet," Arthur hissed as he pushed the blade further into the man's skin, "What's going on; what are you using the girls for?"

"I-I can't say," The man whimpered.

"Does it look like you in a position to not say?" Arthur growled as he slightly began to slide the knife along the man's throat, a small but of blood dropping out.

"S-slaves! We're planning to sell the girls to the slave market in Bosco."

"Good, and what of my gear, my weapons? Where are they?"

"I-I don't know." He replied, only to yelp as he felt his skin get cut slightly, "The captain's quarters, in the back of the ship over there!" He screeched, pointing to a door at the side of the wall.

"Good work, thanks for the info," Arthur thanked as he put his knife away.

The crewman let out a sigh of relief as he held his chest, feeling like he was about to have a heart attack. However before he could do anything else, Arthur punched him hard in the nose again, shattering any bit of bone left and sent him over the rails and into the water with a splash.

Turning away from the rail, Arthur went over to the door to see an eye-sized keyhole under the nob. Looking through it, he saw a medium-sized room with the two crewmen from before sitting inside and holding his gear, seemingly staring at it all hoping to find value in it.

They weren't facing the door, so Arthur opened the door slowly with his knife in hand, hoping to use the art of stealth to take them out. However, as he stepped into the room, the floorboard under him squeaked, alerting the two of his presence.

"Shit," He swore as he saw one of the men turn to him.

"Hey, Sto-"

The man didn't get to finish his sentence, as Arthur threw his skinning knife right into his eye and falling to the floor.

The last one stood there stunned as he watched his buddy die, and before he could do anything, Artur ran at him and kicked his knees in, unnaturally bending his leg. But before the man could scream as he felt his knee shatter, Arthur held his hand over his mouth and another onto his head, and then twisted it, causing a loud snapping sound to echo as he snapped the man's neck.

With the two dead and one less problem to deal with, Arthur quickly went to his gear and put everything on

"Alright, that's step one, now for step two," Arthur muttered as he turned to the door leading out of the quarters and into the ship.

Walking over to the door, Arthur prepared another Aard sign while also drawing his steel sword, the runes on it glowing bright red colour.

"Time to make a grand entrance."

* * *

It was official. Lucy Heartfilia was having the worst night of her life.

She already knew she wasn't going to have that much of a grand time since she had to spend it sucking up to this creepy 'Salamander' guy to get to Fairy Tail, but she figured after that it would all be okay.

She was wrong.

The blue haired mage proved himself to be an even bigger creep than before, as he tried to put her under a sleeping spell for him to do god knows what. She was lucky enough to be able to see it coming and stopped it before she could fall under its influence.

It didn't stop there though, as she found herself now surrounded by a dozen men carrying the girls from the ship as hostages, which she found becoming after 'Salamander' took her keys and threw them out the window.

She felt like she was going to cry. This man, no, this monster just took one of her most prized possessions, her ability to call upon her spirits, and threw it out the window like it was trash.

She looked over at the man, no, this slime responsible for all this with hateful teary eyes, wanting nothing more for him to suffer for what he had done.

Suddenly a loud boom echoed through the ship, and everyone looked back to see none other than Arthur, now in his full gear armed and ready. And boy did he look a bit pissed.

"Arthur!" Lucy cried in happiness, glad that he was safe and here.

"You!" Salamander yelled, surprised that the black haired boy was still on the ship and not thrown over the edge.

"It's over Salamander," Arthur said as he pointed his sword at him, "I know of your plan to sell the girls into slavery."

'Salamander' grit his teeth as he looked at Arthur, but then remembered he was only one kid. Sure he must be robust since he was able to take out the four guy she sent to get him, but what about a dozen men?

"Really now? You think you could take on my crew and me?" He asked with a smirk, earning a few laughs from his men, "Get him, boys!"

"This is going to be easy," A rather burly crewmate said as he charged at the man, eager to get the first hit.

"Arthur, look out!" Lucy cried, only to be silenced by one of 'Salamander's men covering her mouth and keeping her from moving.

"Sorry tuts, your boyfriend's messing with the wrong crew."

"He's not my Boyfriend!" Lucy yelled, her voice muffled through the guy's hand.

Arthur saw the man coming at him from a mile away, and as he closed the distance and threw a punch at him, Arthur spun away from it while swinging his sword up from under the appendage, cutting into it like a hot knife through butter and severing it from his body.

"AHHHHH!" The crewman yelled out in pain as he held his bleeding stump.

He didn't scream for long though, as Arthur swung his sword at his lower neck, cutting into the flesh like tissue paper and severing his cervical vertebrae, rendering him silent.

Everyone watching just stopped and went wide-eyed, a few with their mouths agape while looking on in horror as their fellow man was just killed right in front of them.

Lucy looked no worse, eyes wide as she stood like a statue at the sight of what most would consider some form of murder. Arthur though just seemed like he wasn't bothered at all by what he did, and just turned away from the dead man and to the remainder of the crew.

"Anyone else?" He asked.

All the crew, along with Salamander, stood silent, having no idea if they should go forth and tangle with this madman. Salamander then glared over at the rest of his crew, hoping that get this rat off of his ship and show him what it means to mess with him.

"What are you doing!? Get him!" He yelled.

Some of the crew seemed to get the idea, and four of them ran at him and formed a circle around the black haired boy, making sure they had him cornered with nowhere to run.

All four of them charged in at once, hoping to tackle the boy to the ground and take him down. However, Arthur already had a plan, making an Award sign with his hand and slamming it to the ground, causing a telekinetic burst that sent some men stumbling back and one landing flat on his back.

Moving to the closest one, Arthur wasted no time as he thrust his sword right into the man's chest and piercing his heart. He then yanked it out causing a bit of blood to squirt free, before spinning around and delivering a slash to the next man right across his chest, starting from the left side of his neck down to his bottom side and causing him to drop.

Hearing a cry from another crewman Arthur saw the third man charging at him with rage in his eyes, hoping to avenge his buddies.

Arthur just rolled back to avoid the man, and then swung his sword right at his leg, cutting it clean off and sending him falling flat on his stomach before he stabbed him in the back with his sword.

And then there was one.

Looking at the last man, he gulped as he watched the cat-eyed boy looking his way, but looked behind him to see a candlestick on a small table, and grabbed it with his hand before rushing at him.

'Really?' Arthur thought as he saw the man come at him.

As the man came rushing at him, Arthur held his hand out as he made an Igni sign, causing a torrent of flames to come out and hit the man right in the face, the intense fire and heat burning his skin from how close he was. The crewman dropped the candlestick as he held both hands up to his face while screaming, turning his back to the Witcher unintentionally as he did so. Seeing the opening, Arthur thrust his sword right through his back and out through the man's chest, before kicking the man off and sending him to the floor.

With the floor littered with four freshly made course, Arthur turned to the crewman to see the looks on their faces.

They all looked ready to piss themselves, one or two of them looking a bit green in the face at the sight of all the blood and fresh bodies. 'Salamander' was among them, sweat dripping off his forehead as he looked over to the black haired boy, who was glaring at him with those eyes, those slit amber eyes like that of a monster.

Lucy just looked at Arthur with a mix of awe and fear. When she first met him, she thought of him as the more relaxed type. But seeing him now, he was like some monster in battle, tearing through his foes before moving onto the next.

Arthur meanwhile just flicked the blood from his sword, before slowly advancing towards the group.

"Stop, don't you try anything!" Salamander yelled as he went up to lucy, a small magic circle formed in his hand which he aimed at Lucy, "Take another step and your girlfriend is toast."

"He's not my boyfriend!" Lucy yelled at the mage, only to once again be ignored by everyone.

Arthur meanwhile just scowled, trying to find a way to get Lucy out of Salamander's grip.

Suddenly the ceiling above them collapsed, and from there came a familiar boy with bright pink hair who landed right between Arthur and the others.

"Natsu?" Lucy asked, coming out of her stupor at the sight of his sudden appearance.

Natsu got up to his feet and looked like he had something to say, though stopped as the ship rocked for a second, causing Natsu's cheeks to swell up as he tried to keep his lunch in and collapse to the floor.

"What!?" Everyone went.

"Oh, hey, Lucy!" A familiar high pitched voice said from above.

Looking up, everyone saw the form of happy, who had two bright white angel wings sprouting from his back and also hovering above in the air.

"Happy!?" Lucy yelled as she saw the cat, "Wait a minute, since when do you have wings!?"

'What the hell!?' Salamander thought to himself. First, some crazed swordsman kills his crew, then some kid falls from the sky, and now a flying blue cat!

"Huh, what happened here!?" Happy asked in shock as he saw the bodies on the floor.

"Happy, get Lucy out of here now!" Arthur yelled at the cat, reminding him of the situation at hand.

"Wah, oh yeah!"

Happy then flew over to Lucy at high speeds, headbutting Salamander in the face and knocking him away from the blonde, before wrapping his tail around her waist and taking to the sky.

"Oh no, you don't!" Salamander yelled as he held out his hand, a magic circle forming in front of it, "Promin-AH!"

Before 'Salamander' could finish his spell, a sharp crossbow bolt went right through his hand, interrupting him from casting.

Looking over to who shot it, he saw Arthur with his crossbow in hand pointed right at him.

"Don't forget, we're not done here," He said to the mage.

"Hey! Don't forget about me," Natsu said as he was kneeling on the ground, using his hand as support to try and get him to his feet.

"Can you even fight?" Arthur asked, putting his crossbow back and getting into a stance.

"Just watch me!" Natsu proclaimed as he managed to get to his feet, only to hold his mouth with his hand as the ship rocked, causing him to fall to the ground again.

'You got to be kidding me,' Arthur thought, completely baffled at what was happening.

He shook the thought aside and stepped in front of Natsu and to the rest of the crew.

"Give it up Salamander. It's over."

"You..." Salamander said with grit teeth as he ripped the bolt out of his hand, "You've been a thorn in my side for far too damn long!"

He held his hands out again, another magic circle forming as he prepared his spell.

"RED SHOWER!"

Form the circle, dozens of bright purple balls of flames came out flying towards Arthur, who made a sign in his hands just as they hit, each one exploding with magic energy as they made contact and causing smoke to cover the area and blind everyone's vision.

The blue haired mage held a smirk on his face as he tried to look through the flames. He saw just about all the balls made contact and no doubt put that kid out of commission, already sure he got him and that stupid pink haired kid.

However, when the smoke began to clear, Bora and the remainder of his crew looked on in surprise and a bit of fear, for there he was, Arthur, in the same spot as he was but now covered by a golden Quen bubble shield which shielded him from the fire.

Natsu meanwhile looked up at Arthur, no longer feeling a bit sick as he looked up at the man, who through his and everyone else's eyes saw him tank Bora's spell head-on.

'Whoa, this guy's strong,' Natsu thought as he looked up at the man with a smirk on his face.

"Is that it?" Arthur asked as he got into a stance, releasing the Quen shield and looking towards Salamander with a challenging look.

Salamander clicked his tongue in annoyance and began preparing another spell to throw at the black haired boy, but suddenly the ship started to rock like crazy, before a massive tsunami crashed into it, sending it speeding back towards Hargeon.

'What the hell!?' Everyone thought.

"HM!" Natsu groaned as he tried not to vomit

As the tsunami hit the port, the ship was thrown violently into the harbour, beaching it on its side.

Just about everyone was tossed around the ship or stuck under pieces of wood, and Arthur was no exception.

He groaned as he pushed planks of wood off him and looked around, examining the ship with a few unconscious men inside along with the girls from the party, who appeared to be alright and waking up from their magic-induced slumber and getting out of the ship.

'Looks like they're fine, that's good.'

Standing up and dusting himself up, Arthur exited the wreck and looked around to see that they were on the port back at Hargeon, with the crew around the wreckage trying to recover from what just happened.

'The hell was that even? Couldn't have been a normal wave,' Arthur thought to himself as he looked around.

He looked over across the beach to see a dripping wet Lucy and Happy standing there away from the ship.

"Lucy!" Arthur called out as he went over to her.

"Arthur!" Lucy called out as she saw the Witcher come over.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. What about you? And where's Natsu?"

Remembering the missing pinkette, Arthur looked around to try and look for him and found him standing on the top of the shipwreck, looking a lot better now and staring down at Salamander and his men.

"Hey!" Natsu yelled to Salamander, "You're the guy who claims to be apart of the Fairy Tail guild?"

Salamander just glared at the kid, already fed up with today.

"Yeah, and what's that matter to you!?"

"Because," Natsu said as he tore off his red jacket, revealing a bright red emblem on his right shoulder, the mark of Fairy Tail, "My name is Natsu Dragneel, I'm a Fairy Tail wizard, and I've never seen your face before!"

"What! Natsu's a Fairy Tail Wizard?" Lucy asked in surprise as Arthur looked at him with surprise.

Meanwhile 'Salamander' and his crew looked damn ready to book it out of here, wanting to run back to their mommies and hide.

"That mark!" One of the crewmen said as he pointed to the Fairy Tail emblem, "This guy's the real deal, Bora!"

"DON'T CALL ME THAT YOU IDIOT!" The now identified Bora yelled to his crew.

"Hey I know that name," Happy said as he looked at the blue haired mage, "That's Bora The Prominence. Rumour has it he was kicked out of Titan Nose a few years ago."

"And look where he is now," Arthur said as he looked over to the scared faker.

Bora grits his teeth, but then remembered something about this kid compared to the other, that he was pathetic since he can't even handle a little motion sickness. So with a smirk, he stretched his arms out wide and called forth his magic.

"So what, you think you can stop me!? Fat chance!"

"Prominence Typhoon!"

As he called forth his magic, a swirling column of purple flames flew right at the pinkette and initially the yacht. The yacht suddenly went up in flames.

Lucy looked on in horror, thinking that Natsu was in serious trouble while Arthur drew his sword ready to charge at Salamander and finish this. However, before he could, Happy flew in front of him, stopping him from moving.

"What are you doing?"

"Just watch, Natsu's got this," Happy said with pride.

"Huh?" Arthur and Lucy asked, confused at what he meant.

Arthur looked at the flames, and suddenly, his medallion was vibrating. He figured it would be humming a bit with that display of magic by Salamander, but now it was going crazy.

'What?'

Back with Salamander, he looked on with a small smile on his face. Sure that other kid managed to stop his red shower with that shield, but this kid seemed like a total pushover from what he's seen.

"Hah, looks like he was all bark and no bite," Bora said as he turned away, hoping to flee out of town before the army got here, and avoid running into that other kid.

"Oh man, this is disgusting!"

Salamander just went wide-eyed, whipping his head back to the flames.

"Are you sure you're a fire mage? Cause these are the worst flames I've ever tasted!"

Everyone present and watching just stopped. Natsu stood on the ship completely fine, with the flames from Salamander's spell going into Natsu's mouth, like he was eating them.

Lucy and Arthur looked at the display with wide eyes, Arthur almost dropping his sword in surprise at what he was seeing.

Salamander and his crew, however, looked on in complete surprise, yelling out like scared children while Salamander felt a twitch coming on.

"Thanks for the grub though poser!" Natsu said with a smirk as he put his fists together a bright fire red magic circle forming in front of him, "Cause now I got a fire in my belly that's just raging to get out!"

"FIRE DRAGON~."

Natsu then swelled up his cheeks as he brought his hands up to his mouth as if he was about to blow something out.

"ROAR!

Suddenly, a vast torrent of red-orange flames came forth from Natsu, hitting Bora and his crew, while also destroying the ground from beneath their feet and what remained of the yacht. Bits of sand and wood flew everywhere as Bora's men were blown all over the place.

Bora, for the most part, remained unscathed as he used his magic to keep himself above the ground to avoid the wrath of the rival fire mage.

"Bora, I've seen this guy before!" A crewman said as he pointed at Natsu, "That pink hair, and that scaly scarf! It's no doubt about it. He's the real deal!"

'Salamander!/Salamander?' Lucy and Arthur thought to themselves.

"Hope you're paying attention!" Natsu yelled as his hands were engulfed in flames, "Cause this is what a Fairy Tail Wizard can do!"

Natsu then went on the offence, while Bora started yelling out attacks in fear to try and keep the other raging boy from coming at him, but failed to do so as Natsu ran at him and punched him a reasonable distance away,

"What the hell was that?" Arthur asked as he turned to happy.

"It looked like some sort of spell, but I've never seen anything like it," Lucy said as she watched Natsu and Bora fight.

"Natsu has dragon lungs that allow him to breathe fire, dragon scales to help him dissolve fire, and dragon claws to help him attack with fire. It's an ancient spell that gives him all the properties of a dragon" Happy explained as he watched Natsu punch Bora right in the face.

"Wait, he has the powers of a dragon?" Arthur asked, somewhat baffled by what he just heard.

"Pretty much. In fact, this type of magic was used to fight against dragons. Igneel was the one who taught it to him."

Igneel. That was Natsu's father, who he said was a dragon, right? How the hell does someone learn to use the powers of a dragon?

Turning back to the fight, Arthur saw Natsu eat one final attack from Bora, before rushing at him and punching him right in the face, sending him flying back through a few buildings before he hit the bell of a belltower.

"Wow, that was amazing," Lucy said in awe at the display of magic power.

"I have to agree, but," Arthur began as he looked around the city, which was a bit destroyed and on fire, "I think he overdid it."

"Aye!" Happy agreed.

Suddenly the three all picked up the sounds of many heavy footsteps and the clanking of armour and looked to see a bunch of armed, and uniformed men headed their way.

"The army!?" Lucy said in shock.

"Shit, hang on maybe we can reas-"

Before Arthur could finish his sentence saying how they could probably talk this out with them, Natsu rushed right over to him and Lucy, grabbing both of them before running away.

"Come one we gotta get out of here!" Natsu yelled as he dragged the two away against their will.

"Hey, wait for me!" Happy cried out as he flew as fast as he could to catch up

 **[END]**

 _ **{CHAPTER HAS BEEN REVISED AS OF 06/23/2019}**_


	5. Chapter 5

"Dammit, these idiots from Fairy Tail have gone too far this time! They destroyed an entire port!" A large man dressed in robes shouted, agitated by the acts of the Fairy Tail Mages.

Currently, the Magic Council was having another one of their general meetings, their main discussion being what they consider to be one of their more considerable headaches, the exploits of Fairy Tail and the destruction that follows.

"What's the matter with these fools!? Can they not destroy anything!?" Another asked.

"You know, I'm quite fond of those dimwits and their lazy-fair attitude," A Bluehaired member admitted.

"Yes, although they may prove to be bothersome from time to time we all have to admit they are a powerful and needed group of individuals," A short older member agreed, followed by the majority of the council.

"How about we let them be for now," The blue haired council member said, "After all, imagine how dull this world would be without them."

"I concur, although there is another thing to bring up," A Dark purple haired council member said, gaining the attention of the floor. "Apparently along with the destroyed port, the army reported that they found a total of eight dead bodies, seven of which who were cut down via a bladed weapon, one who suffered severe third-degree burns, and one who drowned with a shattered nose."

"What!?" Another council member yelled.

"Did Dragneel do this!?" Another asked, remembering how he was the one who caused all the damages at Hargeon.

"No," The purple haired lady said calmly, "After the army interrogated one Bora the Prominence and his crew, they said that it was the work of another person?"

"Who was this third party member?" The blue haired council member asked with interest.

"I haven't got a name yet since the crew seemed to be a bit traumatised, but I did manage to get a description. Black hair, amber eyes slit like a cat and two swords on his back."

The council put this into some thought, a bit uneasy at the idea of some rogue mage out of their reach and performing such actions.

'My my, seems things are starting to get interesting,' The blue haired council member thought with a smirk.

* * *

After two days of nonstop running, yelling, and a complimentary face punch from Arthur to Natsu, the gang, found themselves reaching the edge of the city of Magnolia. It was a port city similar to Hargeon, though from looking at it you could see that it was much larger but quickly just as lovely.

"Wow," Lucy breathed out as she looked over the hill, changed out of her dress and into her regular day clothes.

Arthur walked up next to her to see what she was looking at and saw what had to be Magnolia in all of its glory.

It was huge in his opinion and looked to be twice the size of Novigrad, with a large blue ocean behind it with the sun rising slowly above it causing the water to sparkle.

"Looks pretty" Arthur commented, admiring the view.

"Yeah, it looks amazing."

The two stood there admiring the view before Natsu walked up in front of them with a smile on his face.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Let's go!" Natsu said as he ran down the hill.

"Aye!" Happy said as he flew next to his partner.

"Huh? Hey, wait up!" Lucy said as she tried to catch up to them, followed by Arthur.

After running into the city, the first thing the gang did was stop by a nearby store to get Lucy some proper clothing, which conveniently happened to be the same clothes she wore back in charge, much to her pleasure, before eventually arriving at the Fairy Tail guildhall.

It was almost breathtaking. Compared to the other elegant buildings within the city, Fairy Tail was its small castle. It was three stories tall and made from finely masoned stone, and even had its towers. A couple of banners hung over the sizeable welcoming oak wood doors, each coloured differently but all were carrying the same bold symbol of the Fairy Tail guild.

Arthur and Lucy stood there, the later in awe as she looked up at the guild of her dreams. Arthur was a bit less ecstatic, but could not help but admire the building in front of him, seeing that a lot of love and care was put into this single place.

"So, whatcha guys think?" The pinkette asked.

"It's beautiful!" Lucy said ecstatically.

"Have to admit, it truly is impressive," Arthur agreed.

"Well, you guys haven't seen anything yet!" Natsu declared, before walking up to the doors, and kicking them open.

"We're back!" He and Happy yelled in unison as the doors were now wide open.

With the doors opened, Arthur and Lucy got a good view of the whole insides of the guild. It looked like a tavern of a sort, with a large bar to the side of the building and many tables filled with members, either enjoying a drink with friends or just relaxing after coming back from a job. A set of stairs rested near the wall leading up to the second floor, which remained empty except for what looked like a small notice board at the top.

"Welcome back!" Everyone yelled as they saw Natsu come in.

"Hey, Natsu!" One member called out, "I heard you made a big mess in Hargeon. The ma-"

Before the man could even finish, Natsu ran up to him and punched him right in the middle of the face and sending him flying out of his seat.

"That's for spreading that fake rumour you jerk!" Natsu yelled at the downed mage, who then got up and got into his face.

"Hey, don't blame me I was just spreading a rumour I heard!"

"IT WAS ONLY A RUMOUR!?"

"You wanna fight!?"

"Bring it on!"

Soon enough, the two began to duke it out with their fists, and in the process, managing to bring a few of the guild members into the fray.

"Now now Natsu, no need to-AH!" Happy said as he tried to calm Natsu down, only to be hit by a random member and sent ricocheting around the guild and crashing into a bunch of people.

That was the final nail in the coffin, as all around just about every member was duking it out with each other, turning the whole building into one giant free for all.

Now Arthur has seen his fair share of bar fights, been in plenty as well though he would have to agree that this was probably the biggest and out of control one he had ever seen.

Lucy, however, didn't seem to care, or maybe not even notice, as she was too busy stuck in her world gazing around the Fairy Tail guildhall.

"I can't believe it, I'm actually in the Fairy Tail guildhall," Lucy said with stars in her eyes.

"And you're not bothered by this how?" Arthur asked the blonde before moving closer to her to avoid getting hit by a mage sent flying towards him.

"So Natsu's back, huh?" A person called out as they approached the fight.

The person was a young man with spiky raven hair and dark blue eyes and wore no shirt or pants which showed off his muscular but lean frame. Though at the same creeped out Lucy a bit while Arthur looked at with a raised brow.

'Why is he naked?' The two thought together.

"Come on and fight me, Natsu!" The Raven haired boy proclaimed, "We still got a score to settle!"

"Gray, clothes," Another voice pointed out from the bar, that belonging to a young brunette drinking casually from the bar.

"No time!" Gray said as he ran into the fray, knocking a few fellow members aside to try and rush at the Dragon Slayer.

"Jeez, and people wonder why I don't date the men around here," She said as she downed a rather large barrel of booze.

'Damn, she could probably outdrink Gerd with the way she's going at it,' Arthur commented.

"Damn, sure is noisy in here," Another new voice commented from the side, this one sounds very smooth and confident.

Looking over, the duo saw an orange haired man about their age, wearing a green fur lined jacket and sunglasses his eyes. He was also holding two young maidens close to him, giving him that playboy kind of feel.

Suddenly, Arthur's Medallion began to hum, and Arthur grasped it while looking around the room.

'Medallions humming? Must be from all the mages.' He thought as he tried to look for the source.

"I've got to go in a fight, but solely for you two," The orange haired man said sweetly to the two girls before dashing into the fray.

"Good luck, Loke!" The girls said with googly eyes.

By now, all of Fairy Tail was the sight of a war zone. Punches, kicks, random household objects, all of it was being used in a massive all-out fight with one another.

"Okay, maybe things are getting a bit out of hand," Lucy commented as the fight seemed only to get bigger and bigger.

"Maybe we should do something?"

"Oh, are you two new here?" A sweet sounding voice asked from aside.

Looking over, Arthur and Lucy saw a familiar looking white-haired woman, wearing a puffy maroon dress that didn't do much to hide her luscious figure.

"It's Mirajane!" Lucy said in awe.

'That girl from the magazine?'

"Yes, it's nice to meet you both. Are you two here to join Fairy Tail?" She asked with an ever so sweet smile.

"Oh, uh yes!" Lucy answered quickly, trying her best to regain her composer to make an excellent first impression.

"Really, oh that's fantastic, we're always happy to have new members join the guild!" Mira chirped, happy to have some new members join.

Suddenly a sizeable white-haired male came flying right Mira, but before he could make contact and knock her over, Arthur cast Aard towards him, causing the man to dive back into the other direction into a pile of broken tables and chairs.

"You alright, Elfman?" She asked the man without looking back, who gave a quick thumbs up from within the pile, "Anyway, where was I?"

'And you're not going to comment on that?' Arthur thought with a sweatdrop.

"Do they always fight like this?" Lucy asked as she hid behind Arthur, who already had cast Quen around his body to avoid any oncoming debris and people.

"Uhuh," Happy said as he floated next to them.

"Should not we stop this?" Arthur asked, thinking things were getting a bit too out of hand.

"Nah don't worry it's fine," Mira said with a small Giggle, a cup flying right by and missing her by not even an inch before crashing into the wall and shattering, "This happens all the time, plus it can be kind of fun."

'And we shouldn't be worried about that why?'

"THAT'S ENOUGH, YOU BRATS!" A booming voice echoed through the hall, causing everything to come to a halt.

Ask, and you shall receive, Arthur.

"WHAT DO YOU ALL THINK YOU'RE DOING! MAKING A WRECK IN OUR HALL WITH THIS NONSENSE!?"

"Oh, hello there master, I didn't see you there," Mira greeted kindly, not phased by the giant at all.

"That's the master!?" Lucy asked with shock.

"OH WHAT'S THIS, GUESTS?" The Master asked as he looked over at Lucy and Arthur.

Soon the Master then began to shrink in size, returning to his natural Human form.

The Master stood at about no less than three feet tall and looked to be in his late 80's, with balding, short white hair and moustache, and wearing a white t-shirt with the Fairy Tail emblem displayed proudly on the front, and orange jacket over it with matching orange shorts, and blue and orange stripped jester hat.

"Nice to meet you both," The Master said in a polite tone.

"Oh, uh, Hi," Lucy said as she was calming down from all the excitement, while Arthur just gave him a wave.

"Greetings."

The Master returned the wave, before he jumped up to the second floor of the Guildhall, accidentally hitting his head on one of the rafters, before addressing the guild.

"You did it again, your brats!" The Master said as he took out a rather large stack of papers, "Look at this! Not even a month and already I have too many complaints from the Magic Council!"

The Master then flipped through the various sheets, calling out each person in the guild and listing off all the 'stupid shit' they had done, at least that's what it seemed.

"Honestly, do you all know what the things the Magic Council has to say about all of you?"

Everyone in the guild looked down, a small bit of shame flowing through everyone.

"But you know what?" The Master than burned the stack with his magic, before throwing it over the edge before it was gobbled up by Natsu. "I say screw the magic council! Who cares if those old farts think we're too wild! Never let them or anyone else tell you otherwise, cause we're Fairy Tail!"

"YAH!" Everyone yelled in agreement.

As the cheering began to die down, the Master jumped down from his spot back onto the first floor, where he walked over to the two new arrivals.

"Apologies for all that. Things tend to get more than a bit crazy," He began, "Anyway, I'm Master Makarov, the current Guildmaster of this place."

"It's nice to meet you," Lucy began with a bit of a stutter, "My name's Lucy, and this here's my friend Arthur."

"So you're looking to join Fairy Tail, is that Right?" Makarov asked.

"Y-yes, sir! It's always been my dream to join," Lucy said, praying to everything right now that she would be accepted.

Images of the many trials and challenges she would have to overcome plagued her mind. Just seeing Natsu and what he could do, only what possible tests must one go through to join such a prestigious gui-

"Okay, welcome aboard."

"Eh?" Lucy went, stopping her train of thought.

"I said welcome aboard. We'd be happy to have you join," The tiny Master said casually with a small welcoming smile.

"That's it?" Arthur asked, "No harsh trials or challenges to overcome, no initiation?"

"Now why would we do such a thing like that?" Makarov asked, "Here at Fairy Tail we welcome all wizards, no matter what magic they use or how powerful they are. Our guild is not about just having the strongest wizards of all time, but about bringing individuals together in hopes to expand our family and help those individuals to realise their true potential and build bonds with one another."

"So that means-"

"That we'd be happy to welcome you to our guild!"

Lucy let out a girlish scream and knelt to shake the small Master's hand rapidly while expressing her thanks over and over again.

"Now what about you, young man? Are you as well interested in joining our guild as well?" Makarov asked the Witcher.

"There I something I need to discuss with you."

"Oh?" Makarov asked with his brow raised.

"Yes, though is there somewhere more, private, we could talk?"

Makarov looked at the Witcher while rubbing his chin, wondering what exactly this young man needed to discuss with him before turning to Mirajane.

"Mira, could you be a dear and help our newest member get her stamp while I have a little chat with this young man here?"

"Not a problem master," Mira said before turning to the blonde and taking her over to the bar.

"Alright, follow me, and we can talk in my office," Makaro said as he led the Witcher to his office.

Following the Master through the guild, he led him up to the second floor and into his office, where a large oak desk sat in the middle of the room with a chair in front and behind it, along with a few bookshelves as decorative items.

"So young man, what is it you would like to talk about?" Makarov asked as he jumped behind his desk and onto the chair.

"Well, that's the thing."

And so Arthur began to tell him about who he was and what his problem was, how he was from another world and how he was a Witcher, a monster hunter on a job hunting a witch who had kidnapped and killed the children of a local village, before somehow getting transported to Fiore. He explained his whole ordeal with the Village and Vulcans, and how that all lead to Hargeon and eventually here. He made sure to leave out all the more extensive details about what a Witcher exactly was in greater detail, only telling him how they are warrior monks who wander the lands and hunt monsters for a price.

"And that pretty much sums everything up," Arthur finished.

"Interesting, that's quite the tale you have, young man," Makarov commented.

"I know, which is why I'm here. I was hoping maybe you could help me find a way back to my world, or at least give me any lead to where I can find a way back."

"Well, that's the thing. The knowledge of other worlds isn't exactly common knowledge, and only a very slim few know about them. I can say that I know of one, but nothing like this Northern Kingdoms," Makarov admitted, explaining how as far as he knew, he could offer no help.

"Is there anyone else who you know who I could get a lead from?" Arthur asked.

Makarov rubbed his chin in thought. Yes, there were plenty people he knew of who could help, though most of which preferred not to be bothered were far away at the moment. There was one person who fits into the latter category, though he was probably the best option.

"There is one person I know who might be able to give you a lead. However, he isn't her right now," Makarov told the Witcher, who waited for the Master to continue to see who it was, "His name's Mystogan. However, he won't be back for quite a while I imagine."

"How long do you think it will be until this Mystogyn gets back?" Arthur asked.

"I 'm afraid I can't say," Makarov said with a shrug, "He tends to disappear a lot and usually can be gone for a long time, sometimes a couple of months even."

"So you're saying all I can do for now is wait?"

"I'm afraid so," Makarov nodded, "However, I think I have a proposition for you in the meantime."

"And that is?"

"You could join Fairy Tail. I mean you use some magic and hunt monsters for a living right?" Makarov asked the Witcher, "So as long as you are stuck here, why not join? You can make some money through jobs, and even make some new friends along the way."

"Will I get paid?" Arthur asked.

"Of course. And since monster quests are considered dangerous they pay much more compared to other jobs, so you'd make quite the sum of money no doubt."

Arthur held his chin as he thought over the proposition. Taking a glance, everything seemed to have no downside. He would be able to find work, maybe even more than he usually does, get some warm food whenever he wanted, and maybe sleep on something other than dirt and grass.

'Ah, what the hell.'

"Alright, why not," Arthur said as he extended his hand to the small wizard.

With a smile, Makarov jumped out of his seat and onto his desk, where he took hold of the black haired boy's hand and gave it a firm shake.

"Fantastic, now to make it official," He said as he walked out of the office with Arthur following.

Walking out of the office, Makarov jumped onto the rail, this time without hitting his head, and addressed the guild.

"LISTEN UP YOU BRATS!" He yelled, getting everyone's attention, "We got ourselves another new member today, how about that! As of this moment, let's welcome our newest members, Fairy Tail style!"

The whole crowd let out a wild cheer, happy to not have one, but two new members join their family as of today. Drinks were being handed out on the double, and everyone was ready to celebrate the latest additions to the family.

"This is... unexpected," Arthur commented, surprised and confused by the actions of those beneath him.

"Not use to such celebrations?" Makarov asked.

"I've attended a few feasts and bashes back home, though never before had one been held for someone like me before, especially on a scale like this," Arthur admitted.

Sure he had attended a few of the feasts back at the Bear School, and even had that little venture back in Dandelion Town. However, Fairy Tail seemed to put on a much more welcoming and engaging party, and all to welcome him?

"Well, that's how we do things in Fairy Tail. Now why don't you get on down there and get your mark as well as mingle, I'm sure everyone is dying to meet you."

Nodding at the Master once more, Arthur walked down the steps and into the vast crowd of mages, all of which seemed to give him a welcome smile or pat on the shoulder, before arriving at the bar where he saw Mirajain holding what looked like a stamp in her hand.

"So, Arthur, where do you want your mark, and what colour?" Mira asked.

"Mark?" He asked.

"Yep. Everyone in Fairy Tail has them. It's what proves you're a member of the guild," The barmaid answered, "Don't worry, it won't hurt."

Thinking it over, Arthur reached for his left gauntlet and took it off while holding his hand out to Mira.

"Left hand, and in black."

Mira nodded with a smile as she pressed the stamp firmly on Arthur's hand. There was a small flash of light coming from under it, and a second later Mira took the seal off, revealing a solid black coloured guild mark on his hand.

"Welcome to the family, Arthur!" Mira beamed at him with a bright smile.

'Family, huh?'

Family was an estranged topic, especially for Witchers of the Bear school due to them never indeed forming bonds with anyone, even those in their own school. Still, something about what the Mirajane said to him sounded right, in a weird sort of way.

Looking at his mark with interest for a second, Arthur placed his gauntlet back on and looking up at the barmaid.

"Thanks."

"Of course, it's always nice to have new people come and join our family. Now, why not take a seat at the bar and I can get you something to eat and drink as a show of welcome?"

"That would be nice actually, thank you."

"Anytime," Mira said as he went into the kitchen.

As Arthur took a seat at the bar and waited for his food, a small crowd began to form around him, all of whom had questions for the black haired boy.

"So what kind of magic do you use?"

"Why do you have two swords on your back?"

"Wana join my team?"

"Why do your eyes look like that?"

"Are you single?"

"Alright everyone, no need to crowd the guy," The Brunette from earlier called out, shooing away everyone crowding around since they were also in her 'drinking space'.

Looking over, Arthur saw a woman around his age, with long flowing dark brown hair and fair skin, wearing only a blue bikini top over her large breasts and a pair of brown pants and blue sandals.

"Don't worry about them. They just get accited when someone new joins. We rarely get a newbie in the guild, especially one so cute," She said in a sultry tone.

"Now now Cana, no need to tease the new guy already," Mira said as she returned with a tray of food and drink.

"Come on now, Mira, I'm just making conversation," Cana said with a wave, "I just want to get to know the newbie a bit more."

"Hm, that was fast," Arthur commented as he saw the plate of food Mira brought.

"Well, it helps to be prepared when the guild gets like this," Mira said as she placed the tray in front of Arthur, "I hope you enjoy it."

"Gladly," Arthur said as dove right in, "Damn, this is good."

While diving into his well-made meal, the Witcher soon realised something, or rather some people were missing. Taking a look around the hall, Arthur noticed the absence of one dragonslayer and one blonde girl.

"Excuse me, Mira," Arthur said, getting the barmaid's attention, "What happened to Lucy and Natsu?"

"Oh, you weren't here since you were with the Master, but one of our own Macao went to go on a job and hasn't been back for a while. His son was starting to worry, so Natsu went to help with Lucy following."

So they won't be back for a while then?

"Where'd they go?"

"Over to Mt Hakabai far away from here. Don't worry, though. I'm sure they can handle whatever happens, especially Natsu knowing him."

"Well, if you say so," Arthur said as he went back to his food, hoping that Lucy would be okay.

While waiting for Lucy and Natsu to return from their little search and rescue, Arthur got to meet everyone in the guild.

He already met Mira, the buxom barmaid/poster girl for the guild, as well as Cana, the luscious card mage and resident heavy drinker, who seemed always to have some heavy liquor nearby.

There was also Elfman, aka the white-haired male he made fly with Award when he first got here, who strangely enough commented him for it, saying it was 'Manly to protect his sister,' as well as having 'Manly magic', whatever the hell that meant.

Then there was Team Shadowgear, made up of a bluenette bookworm named Levy, a fast speed mage named Jet, and a plant magic user by the name of Droy, who each welcomed the Witcher with open arms.

There were also plenty of other mages and staff who all came along trying to meet the new member, with a few of the ladies giving him bedroom eyes.

It was pleasant. Good food and drink, and an all-out pleasant atmosphere. Though he wishes they would tone down on the fight which happened to have gone down again about twenty or so minutes into it. He thought the Master would put a stop to it, but instead, he was on the bar drunk and seemed to be crying at his 'precious guild' being destroyed by a 'bunch of brats' as he put it.

He could already tell that his time in this guild would be a memorable one for sure, but he had yet decided if those memories would be pleasant or not.

* * *

Hours passed, and the sun began to set as many of the guild members started to pack up and leave for the day, hoping to get some rest before coming back tomorrow and start the new day.

Arthur walked out of the hall and stretched his arms out with a small yawn, the festivities getting to him as well as the excellent food that Mira cooked up. She was one hell of a cook that was for sure, as everything she made seemed to taste better than the last.

Walking down the street, Arthur saw the forms of Lucy and Natsu, making their way over to him.

"Hey, Arthur!" Lucy called out as she quickened her pace.

"Hey, good to see you guys back. You all okay?"

"We're fine, thanks. Sorry we left without telling you, something came up," Lucy apologised, remembering how they just left him there at the guild.

"It's fine, Mira told me about it after I got done talking with the master."

"Did gramps help you with what you need?" Natsu asked.

"He did manage to give me a lead, though unfortunately, I'm going to have to wait a while before I can look into it. Though luckily he was kind enough to offer me up a place in the guild?"

"Wait, does that mean you joined the guild?" Lucy asked, a look of surprise on her face.

"Aye, got my mark and everything," Arthur said, taking his gauntlet off and showing his mark.

"ALRIGHT!" Natsu yelled with his fists in the air before running over to Arthur's side and wrapping his arm around his shoulder, "Welcome to the guild, Arty!"

"It's Arthur," Arthur deadpanned.

"Yeah, good luck trying to get him to remember that," Lucy muttered, before looking at Arthur's hand, "Hey, you got your's on your hand too?"

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, I just thought it was kind of a coincidence since I got mine on my right hand actually," Lucy said as he raised her hand to show her new pink guild mark.

"Huh, would you look at that," Arthur muttered, looking down at his mark.

"Maybe it's a sign," Happy said as he flew up between the two, "A sign that you loooooove each other."

"Shut it you stupid cat!" Lucy yelled with a flush on her face while Arthur just gave him a strange look.

Happy along with Natsu just laughed at Lucy's angry look for a bit, before they eventually stopped and let out a small yawn, the excitement of today getting to them.

"Well, I'm beat," Natsu said as he stretched his arms out, tired from all the excitement.

"Aye, we should get home, Natsu," Happy said as he floated next to the pinkette.

"Yeah, you're right," Natsu said as he turned and began to walk away, "See you guys tomorrow!" He said before he and happy ran off, Lucy and Arthur giving the duo a wave as they left.

"So, how'd the little search and rescue go?" Arthur asked as he walked up to the blonde while putting his gauntlet back on.

"It went well surprisingly," Lucy began, "We managed to find Macao after fighting a bunch of these Vulcan things, which he managed to destroy over nineteen before the last one used a Take Over spell on him."

"Take over?" Arthur asked, unfamiliar with the term.

"It's a type of magic which allows the user to take over someone's body," Lucy explained.

"So like some sort of possession?" Arthur asked, getting a nod from the blonde.

"Yeah, it's creepy," Lucy said with a sigh before looking over at the setting sun, "Shoot, it is getting late, and I don't have a place to stay."

Arthur just realised that too. He was too busy in the guild being introduced to everyone and having a rather lovely time that he forgot he had to find somewhere to sleep.

"Damn, I forgot about that as well," Arthur said, "Guess we're in the same boat now."

"Maybe we can find a place to stay?" Lucy suggested.

"You mean the two of us?"

"I mean, why not? Both of us need somewhere to sleep, and honestly, I wouldn't mind sharing a place with you."

'Also because you're probably the only sane person I've met so far today.'

"So what do you say, roommates?" Lucy asked while holding out her right hand.

"Sure, why not," Arthur said, gripping her hand with his left.

"Well, Guess we better find someplace quick before we have to sleep outside again," Lucy said, hoping she wouldn't have to sleep in the woods for the third night in a row.

 **[END]**

 _ **{THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN REVISED AS OF 06/23/2019}**_


	6. Chapter 6

After some quick house searching, Lucy and Arthur managed to find a place that would fit their needs. It was a two-story apartment with a single bedroom and bathroom, kitchen, and living room. Lucy was worried that Arthur wouldn't want to sleep on the couch since she wanted a bed, but he said he was okay with it and would instead get some sleep since the sun was now down.

Initially, the rent was about seventy thousand Jewel, but since two people were going to be staying in it, it had been bumped up another thirty thousand. Lucy was about ready to cry when the rent increased, as she had no money to make either a down payment or even pay off a month.

However help had arrived in the form of her new roommate, who still had his reward money for helping Riverdale from the Vulcans and used it to cover the rent for both of them, much to Lucy's pleasure. She felt as if she could kiss him at that point.

The following day was rather pleasant. Arthur had slept on something not made entirely of wood or stone for once and instead awoke on a somewhat comfortable loveseat with cute matching pillows. He didn't mind that he had to sleep on the couch and assured Lucy it was one of the comfiest thing's he had ever slept on.

Currently, he was on the couch, waiting for Lucy to finish getting ready for the day before they went over to the guild to begin looking for work. While he waited for the blonde, he was wondering what kind of contract to take, though he had one in mind.

While he was sitting there, his senses kicked in as he heard the sound of the window in the kitchen opening up.

He quickly got off the couch and hid in the corner by the kitchen, leaning over to see the latch to the window being fiddled with.

Going over to the closet quickly, he retrieved his knife and held it in a reverse grip, and quietly snuck over by the window by staying close to the wall, and waited for whoever was trying to break in.

When the window opened, Arthur dashed out of cover and reached forward with his hands and dragged the alleged burglar inside and forced him to the ground with his knife at the jugular, only to stop as he recognised who it was.

"Natsu?"

The pinkette blinked for a few seconds, before looking up at Arthur and waving at him with a small smile.

"Oh, hey, Aren!" Natsu said casually, getting his name wrong.

"Wow, you know how to welcome guests, Andrew," Happy said as he flew in through the open window, getting his name wrong as well.

"That's not my name," Arthur said with a sweatdrop as he looked towards the flying feline, before getting off Natsu, "And what exactly are you two doing here?"

"We heard you two got a new pad, so we came to check it out," Natsu answered as he stood up.

"Okay, but why'd you try and break in?"

"Cause it's more fun that way," Happy said innocently.

"... Sure," Arthur said, not wanting to go further into this.

"Arthur, are you okay!?" Lucy yelled from upstairs before Arthur heard her rush down the steps, "It sounded like something fell, are you oka-What are you two doing here!?"

After calming Lucy down and explaining everything to her, everyone present found themselves gathered in the kitchen sitting down at the table with a cup of tea in hand.

"So, mind telling me what exactly you two are doing breaking into our place?" Lucy asked the two.

"We already told Andy, we wanted to come and check in on you guys," Natsu said to Lucy, while Arthur just sweatdropped at the dragonslayer getting his name wrong, again.

"Well I think the police would label it as 'breaking and entering'," Lucy commented, "So how about you two just drink your tea, and get out of here, please?"

"Wow, talk about hospitality," Happy muttered.

"Pot meet kettle, you're black" Arthur muttered back.

"But I'm blue," Happy pointed out.

"Hey, I have an idea!" Natsu declared, "Why don't you show us some of those weird key guys you have."

"Key guys?"

"For your information, they're called 'Celestial Spirits'," Lucy corrected.

"What exactly are you referring to?" Arthur asked.

"Oh that's right, you never saw me call my Celestial Spirits," Lucy said, recalling how he has never seen her magic yet, before taking out key ring full of six different types of skeleton keys, "Celestial Spirits are beings that a mage can summon through what we call 'Gate Keys'. So far I have six, and a wide variety of them too."

Lucy then went into a more in-depth explanation of every key she had. There were two so far, the first being three silver keys which seemed to summon what appeared to be basic familiars, and then the golden ones who were so rare that there were only twelve in all of existence.

"Oh shoot, I just remembered I have to form a contract with that new Key I got!" Lucy realised, "Hey, I don't suppose you all would like to see how a Celestial Wizard forms a contract?"

"I don't know. You're not going to do any kind of blood ritual, are you?" Happy asked.

"Just what kind of contract do you think this is!?" Lucy yelled at the cat, before calming down and begun the ritual, sticking the silver key out and reciting some tome, before a bright magic circle appeared from under her

"Open, Gate of the dog, Nikolai!" She shouted as she struck the key into the circle, summoning the spirit.

Now when Arthur hear the words 'Gate of the dog', he figured Lucy was going to summon just that, a dog. But instead, he found himself looking down at what appeared to be... a tiny shaking snowman?

'Huh?' Both he, Natsu and Happy thought as they watched Lucy

"That... does not look like a dog," Arthur commented, stating the obvious.

"Yeah, better luck next time Luie," Natsu said.

"Not everyone gets it on the first try," Happy said.

"It's supposed to look like that!" Lucy defended, before kneeling and scooping the little creature in her arms and petting it like a little puppy, "Now then, onto the contract."

Lucy then proceeded to converse with the spirit, asking it what days it can be summoned, which Arthur found to be rather mundane and straightforward compared to other summonings he had seen Sorcerers do back in the northern kingdoms.

"Alright, now for a name," Lucy said as she tapped her chin, "Oh I got it! Come here, Plue."

"Plue?" Arthur asked as he watched his roommate begin to treat the spirit like it was her pet

"Yeah, isn't it just the most adorable name ever?" She squealed, scratching Plue from under his chin.

Plue then waddled away from Lucy and towards Natsu, who bent down and then began to talk to him.

"Hey, great idea, Plue!" He said.

"You can talk to it?" Lucy and Arthur questioned as they watched Natsu talk to it as if he could understand the thing.

"Plue just gave me the best idea ever, from now on we're all going to be one big team!" He said with a thumbs up.

"A team?" Arthur asked a bit confused.

"Yep, some members in the guild who get along with each other enough can form teams, that way they get the job done faster and more efficient," Happy explained.

Arthur found the concept instead, strange. Sure he had heard about other witchers who would come across another on the same job creating a temporary partnership but never deciding to permanently team up with one another as to walk the path of the Witcher was to walk it alone.

"So what do you say, you guys want to form a team with us?" Natsu asked.

While Arthur took a moment to think about it, Lucy seemed actually to be alright with this and gladly joined in.

"Alright, you have my word!" Lucy declared before turning to her roommate, "What about you, Arthur, want to come along?"

"Maybe next time. I already saw a request before leaving the guild yesterday and wanted to check it out. Looked promising."

"You sure?" Lucy asked, sounding a bit disappointed about not going along with her roommate, which Arthur just shook his head.

"Well, suit yourself. If anything, you could always join the team later. Now come on Luigi, let's get ready to go on our first job!" Natsu said as he stood up from his seat, ready to explain the perfect job for them now that Lucy was on their team.

"It's Lucy!"

* * *

After Natsu, Lucy, and happily went off on their little misadventure taking care of some book stealing job, Arthur made his way over to the guild to immediately get to work.

Walking into the guild hall, Arthur looked to see everyone inside either having a drink or at the board, preparing to get to work.

"Good morning, Arthur," Mira greeted as she saw the black-haired monster slayer arrive.

"Morning, Mira," The Witcher greeted back as he passed the bar.

"Ready to start your first official day?"

"That's the plan. I had my eye on a job and was hoping to take it."

"Well alright, just tell me when you've found something and I'll take care of the rest."

Arthur nodded towards the ivory haired barmaid, and strut over to the job, and saw Team Shadowgear standing in front of the request board looking for something specific.

"Oh man, did somebody take that book stealing job?" Levy asked as she stood in front of the job board.

"Was it the one involving a Duke Everlue?" Arthur asked as he walked up to the petite mage.

"Yeah, you know something about it?" Levy asked as she and her team turned to see Arthur behind her.

"Because Natsu and Lucy just left for the job right before I came here," Arthur informed, causing Levy and her team to deflate a bit.

"Ah man, that job was two hundred thousand too. We could have used that money."

"Don't worry about it Levy, It's probably for the best since the job has been changed," Makarov said from the bar.

"Why's that master?" Levy asked, while everyone else closeby listened in.

"Was the job cancelled?" Mira guessed.

"Quite the opposite. The client just contacted me, and the reward has been raised to two million."

Hearing just how high the reward was increased, everyone listening in felt their eyes widened, not believing that someone would increase the amount that high for a book-stealing job.

"Holy crap are you kidding!?"

"That's like monster slaying money, holy crud!"

"Those lucky bastards!"

'Damn,' Arthur thought to himself, also caught off guard from the change.

If what Makarov said was true, then if Lucy and Natsu completed their mission, they would have enough money not to have to work for a while, and he and Lucy wouldn't have to worry about rent for a long while.

Still, that didn't mean that he should stop from going on a job.

'Well, best I pick a job,' Arthur thought as he looked at the request board for a job, looking for the one job he saw yesterday.

"Oh, you looking for a job, Arthur?" Mira asked as she walked up behind him.

"Yeah, hoping to get one in since Lucy and Natsu left for one already."

"I'm surprised you didn't go along with them," Mira commented.

"Stealing books aren't my kind of work; I prefer to stick to hunting monsters."

"Well, alright. But since this is technically your first job, it'd probably be better to bring someone with you."

"I'm sure I can handle it."

"Maybe, but it's always nice to have someone to work with," Mira said before turning to Gray, who was still at the bar, "Hey Gray, you're not doing anything right? How about you and Arthur go on a job together?"

"Sure, ain't like I got anything better to do," Grey said as he got out of his seat and walked over towards them.

"You sure, I think I can handle it."

"Maybe, but it's good to have someone to watch your back to make sure you don't mess up," Gray responded before turning to the board, "So, what job were you thinking of taking?"

"This one right here," Arthur said as he pointed to a flyer on the board.

 **{Need help destroying a pack of poisonous swamp toads. Will pay 200,000 Jewel for any mage willing to help us.}**

"I don't know man, you sure you're up for it? Fighting monsters isn't exactly starting level work," Gray suggested.

"I think we can handle it," Artur said as he took the flyer off the board and walked over to the bar.

"Find a job?" Mira asked as she saw Arthur walk up to her.

"Got one right here," He said as he handed the flyer to the barmaid.

Taking the request from Arthur and giving it a look over, she gave it a good look before looking over at the Witcher with a thoughtful expression.

"Are you sure about this, it seems rather difficult for a beginner?"

"Maybe, but I have plenty of experience when it comes to fighting monsters," Arthur argued.

"Well, alright. Just be careful," Mira asked as she took a book out from under the bar, and began filling out the forms to notify the client, "Alright, you're good to go."

"Great, now let's get to the train and get going," Gray said before Arthur stopped him.

"How about you put your clothes back on first," Arthur deadpanned, seeing as Gray was only in his underwear, something he didn't seem to notice.

'Why do I have a bad feeling about this?'

* * *

The ride to the client was a concise one. Instead of ridding by horseback or a carriage of some sort, Gray had taken Arthur to a piece of revolutionary engineering, the people of Earthland call a 'train.'

The machine fascinated Arthur in that it was faster than any horse or carriage he had been on, and the insides were somewhat comfortable like that of what nobleman would ride in.

It was somewhat surprising how Earthland was more developed than any of the Northern Kingdoms or all of Nilfgaard combined.

Though while it may be fast, he and Gray still had quite a long ways to go before they would reach their destination, and the ride was a somewhat silent one.

Often Gray would try to strike up a conversation with the Witcher, and Arthur would do his best to try and answer whatever the Ice Mage asked. It was nothing too personal, just a bit of small talk to try and break awkward silences and pass the time. Arthur didn't mind at all, though to be honest, he spent most of the ride just watching the land pass by quickly through the window.

Eventually, the ride came to an end within the next hour, and the two Fairy Tail members arrived at their destination.

Getting off the locomotive and onto the small platform, the two members gazed at their supposed stop. It was a rather small village compared to that of Magnolia, with a few dozen stones and brick buildings, civilians wandering around doing their day to day means, and sights of children playing in the streets.

It was a beautiful and homey place.

"Alright, where too?" Gray asked, taking a moment to stretch his legs.

"First we need to find the 'mayor' or this town and go to him for the details, where he'll explain everything else to us."

"Sounds like a plan, let's get moving."

The walk to the mayors was a short and quiet only took about ten minutes before the two made it to the mayor's place of residence, a rather large manor at the other end of town.

Walking in, they were escorted by a maid to the mayor's office, where they saw a chubby man in a three-piece suit sitting behind an oak desk with an array of papers all over it.

"Oh, thank goodness you're here! Come in, come in!" The mayor gestured as the two Fairy Tail members walked up to the desk, "You have no idea how glad I am that you've made it so soon."

"Well it's a good thing we managed to get here then," Gray said.

"Yeah, now how about we cut the chase and get down to business," Arthur suggested, "What's the deal with these toads?"

The mayor took the sign to get right to the details and straightened himself in his seat before explaining everything.

"Well you see, they are rather ferocious beasts, and many of my citizens, as well as travellers, find themselves attacked by them whenever they by or through the swamps, driving people away. We've already had almost a dozen of my people fall victim to these beasts, and I would very much appreciate it if you could manage to take care of them."

"You said poisonous, care to go into more detail about that?" Arthur asked, mentally jotting down some notes that could be of use later.

"Wel from what I have gathered, the toads seem to have some sort of venom that they use to paralyse their victims, making it harder for anyone to escape them. So hopefully you'll be very cautious as not to get eaten by them."

"Don't worry; I've dealt with plenty of monsters in the past, plenty of which were poisonous. We should be fine and get this job done as soon as we can."

"Wonderful!" The mayor said with glee, happy to have someone with experience, "All the more reason for you to start right away. Just follow the pathway out of town and towards the swamp. There you can begin your hunt for these devils. Afterwards, you shall receive your payment."

"Alright, doesn't seem too hard," Grey commented, feeling confident they had this, "We can probably get this done quickly."

"I hope what you say is true, young man," The mayor said, "As I'd like these pests to be dealt with a soon as possible. Hell, if you manage to eliminate these beasts before Nightfall, I'll throw in a bonus to your reward."

"Consider it done," Arthur accepted.

* * *

After leaving the mayor's house, the pair immediately went to work and headed to the forest to try and look for any tracks and other clues they could use to find the toads and put an end to them once and for all.

Arthur was the one doing most of the tracking, with Gray following close behind watching as Arthur led him through the swamp.

"You sure you know what you're doing?" He asked, hoping that they weren't lost from how deep they were now in the swamp.

"Positive, look at this," Arthur said as he bent down to move some leaves aside.

There, on the muddy ground, was a trail of webbed footprints a nearly the size of his head, with if you looked carefully, was the start of a path towards the direction that they were going in.

"Are those footprints?" Gray asked as he looked over Arthur's shoulder.

"Yeah, fresh as well," Arthur said as he knelt, pressing his fingers into the mud and examining it.

'Barely even an hour old, their close.'

"If we follow them we should be able to find them, hopefully, the nest as well."

"You seem to have some experience with this," Gray commented.

"I've done this plenty of times before, hunting and tracking that is. It's a crucial part when hunting monsters, and need to be on the lookout for anything from footprints, droppings, blood, anything that can give you a clue to understanding what you're hunting and where they are," The Witcher explained, "Hell, if I know what kind of monster it is or find a certain scent, I could track them faster like a bloodhound."

"Well damn, that's impressive and useful," Gray said, impressed with the Witchers senses, which reminded him a bit of Natsu's sense of smell.

He may hate his guts, but damn can that guy smell things for miles.

"It's just what I was taught to make sure I can get the job done. Now let's get going, the sooner we get this job done, the sooner we can get paid."

Gray nodded in agreement as they continued their little search party into the swamps, following the footprints for what felt like half an hour, until the two found themselves in some large clearing with multiple puddles of murky water, with a large cave on the other side.

That was when they appeared.

They jumped up from under the muddy dirt and water, causing the two to jump back as to avoid getting hit by them. They were about the size of a full person, with delicate slimly purple skin, each looking at them with hungry sickly orange eyes, and long elastic green tongues dripping with slobber and poison licking their hungry lips.

"I count twelve of them," Arthur said as he drew his silver sword, ready for a fight.

"Good, that makes six for each of us," Gray said as he put his hands together, charging up his magic.

"Where's your shirt?" Arthur asked as he saw that Gray was now shirtless.

"Later!"

Before the argument over why Grey needed a shirt on could come into play, all of the toads simultaneously jumped towards the mages with their mouths wide open and tongues ready to shoot out and paralyse them.

The two dodged the attacks by jumping to different directions before Arthur cast Yrden under a few of the toads before rushing in for the kill, his silver sword cutting deep into their slimy skin, while Grey charged a burst of magic ready to take on some himself.

"ICE MAKE LANCE!" He shouted, a burst of cold magic changing into a massive lance of magic which hit a dead toad centre, sending it into two of its brothers before they were all crushed the magic attack and a dense tree.

Arthur meanwhile, cuts the tongue of another toad who tried to paralyse him with its venom, before slicing the top of its mouth and head from the rest of its body, before turning towards another one and slashing its side open causing its guts to spill into the murky, shallow water beneath it.

Hetal taking out a Northern Wind potion from his pouch, Arthur lit it before throwing it into three more toads who were clustered close to each other and let it loose, the explosion covering each in a thick layer of frost and stopping them from escaping.

Arthur then rushed forward, giving each of them a massive slash which cut into their bodies and ending their lives once and for all.

He turned back to see Gray, finishing off the last of them by freezing it solid, before smashing it into a million pieces with a hammer made of ice.

"Hm, that wasn't bad," Arthur said as he flicked some slime and toad blood off his sword, "And you sure know how to fight."

"Thanks, you're kind of impressive as well. Though how about we save the flattery for when after we finish the mission?"

"Right, how about we go an-Stop taking your pants off," Arthur demanded as he saw that Gray was in the middle of taking his pants off.

Before Gray could take notice of his stripping habit, the ground under them began to quake, and the water started to rumble a bit. Hearing a loud sickly stomping noise coming from the cave, the two looked over to see something emerging from the dark depths.

It was large, much larger than the toads they had a face, at least six meters tall, and with more jagged lumps and spikes along it's back, and instead of sickly orange eyes, a pair of glowing red one's stared back.

It was the mother of the nest, and judging from how she just saw them kill off her babies, she was no doubt mad.

With a loud roaring croak, the mother leapt high over to the two, who jumped out of the way just in time as to avoid getting crushed into pancakes.

"What now?" Gray asked, trying to figure out a way to take this thing down.

"We need to slow it down a bit, do you think you can try to freeze the water below to try and stop it?"

"I'll give it a shot."

Charging up his magic, Gray shot it down onto the liquid surface below, freezing it solid before it began to spread out towards the giant toad, where it jumped at the last minute after sensing the temperature change.

"Dammit, it's fast!"

Reaching into his pouch, the Witcher pulled Northern Wind bomb out and threw it towards the toad after lighting it. The toad jumped out of the way of the initial impact, but the explosion managed to get its legs and temporarily immobilised it.

"ICE MAKE LANCE!" Grey shouted as he took the opportunity to take another shot at the toad.

A bright shining lance of ice soon shot out of his hands, hitting the immobilised toad right in the side and pushing it back substantially.

Arthur took the opportunity to rush in there and get some hits in there, grasping his silver sword and running around it and doing a few quick slashes on its slimy hide.

Arthur managed to cut deep into it as blood began to leak out of the toad, and jumped back in time to avoid a harsh back kick from the toad's leg after the frost on its backside managed to wear off, before the toad turned to face the Wither, seemingly forgetting about Gray.

"ICE MAKE EXCALIBUR!" He shouted as he brought down a giant sword made of ice up in its head, no doubt cracking its skull a bit and giving it a concussion.

Everything seemed to be going well, as now the two Fairy Tail members had the advantage with the two of them going up against it, but right as Arthur was about to go in for another attack as with Gray charging up another lance, the toad raised its head high and let out a high pitch wail.

The noise coming from the amphibious monster caused Arthur and Gray to stop in their tracks, as the high pitch noise was like someone was slamming a bell right into their eardrums, Arthur more as his enhanced hearing was affected even greater.

When the wail came to a stop, there was still ringing in both of the boy's ears, and their vision was hazy as everything appeared to be moving in circles.

Arthur, in such a daze, that he failed to see the toad was now in front of him and smashed its webbed hand across his body and sent him flying into a tree.

"GAH!" Arthur cried out as he felt as if his back was on the verge of snapping.

"Arthur!" Grey cried out as his conscious state began to wear down, fearing for the new guys' safety.

However, with his back turned, Gray failed to see the mother look his way and open her giant mouth and shoot her venomous tongue at him. It hit Gray dead on, sticking him on his naked back, sick greenish goe clinging to his body and flow.

"GAH!" Gray cried as he felt his body come to a standstill as if frozen in ice.

"Gray!" Arthur yelled as he saw his temporary partner get hit with the venom.

"I can't move!" he yelled over.

Turning his eyes over, he just caught the sight of the mother toad in his peripheral vision, only a few inches away from his frame and ready to gobble him up the whole.

However, before it could do just that, he saw a faint slim object fly right over him and hit the toad right in the eye. The object revealed itself to be a small bolt with an explosive tied to it, which proceeded to explode and to engulf the mother's whole right side in flames, causing it to croak out in pain and rear back a bit while trying to use its hands to put out the small fire.

The arrow was from none other than Arthur, who managed to push himself on to his feet and take out his crossbow. Taking the time while the toad was still blinded, Arthur hastily grasped a Swallow potion from his pouch and downed it, before putting the crossbow back on his back and rushing over to Gray's side and dragging him away from the toad as best he could.

"Dammit, are you alright?" He asked after dragging him to the edge of the battlefield.

"I can't move, and everything feels numb."

"Shit. Just stays here and let me handle it," Arthur said before running off.

"Like I can move anyway!"

Jogging back into the combat zone, Arthur saw the mother managed to put out the little fire and was now glaring at the Witcher with hate and rage.

Giving her a quick look over, Arthur saw the after-effects of the exploding bolt had done its job, as the mother's right eye was now bleeding with blood and sick juices, and the surrounding area was covered in small burns and bubbled skin. It was now blind in one eye, and even with Gray out of the fight, for now, he still had the advantage if he played his cards right.

"Come on you, filth. Show me what you got."

The giant toad accepted the challenge. It lunged forward with the intent to crush Arthur, who only dove out of the way in time to avoid it before getting back up and slashing the mother along the side of its body. He cut into its slobbery skin and bleed a bit before it quickly turned to face him and lash it's tongue out to try and paralyse him.

He jumped back in time to avoid the venomous appendage and rolling to the side before recasting Yrden on the ground right in front of the toad, causing to be in a near motionless state.

Arthur took the time while the monster was slowed down to rush in behind the beast and deliver a dozen fast and heavy blows into it's thick and slimy hide, causing the toad to give out many cries of pain as it felt the stinging silver dig into the bone.

Ducking under the large appendage, Arthur moved his arm in a way that he swung his sword in an upward arc, cutting the tongue free from the toad's mouth and giving him another advantage.

It gave out another cry of pain as it waved its ugly head around while also claiming at its mouth, little squirts of blood coming out from the gushing vessels from where he cut.

With a painful and rage-filled cry, the toad charged forward at Arthur, who put up a Quen bubble shield just in time for the toad to smash into it, causing it to become dizzy and allowing Arthur to get an excellent upper slash on its lip, splitting it in two before the toad jumped away as to escape its prey.

This was it, Arthur had the battle in its favour and could see that the toad was on its last legs. All it would take was one precise strike, and he would land the killing blow.

The toad knew this as well and was using it's monster brain to think of any possible way to either regain its strength and kill its hunter.

It was at this time that the mother then noticed that while the Witcher was readying to fight, she had seen Gray still paralysed and on the other side of the area unguarded.

'What are you-oh shit,' Arthur thought as he went to try and stop the toad, but had to dodge out of the way as it once again tried to smack him away,

The toad then immediately jumped away from Arthur with all the strength it could muster, to gobble up the paralysed mage so it could use his flesh to regain some strength to prolong its life enough to kill the other one.

Arthur had to act fast and had no time to pull out and reload crossbow or time to cross the distance between him and the toad before it takes a chomp out of Gray.

Looking down at the sword in his hand, Arthur suddenly developed an idea.

'This is either going to save us or kill us.'

Deciding to question his method later, Arthur did the one thing that any swordsman would scold him for doing the dumbest thing ever with a sword. He raised his sword high above his head, and with a yell, threw it at the toad.

The blade travelled through the air like a rotating wheel, before crossing the distance between Arthur and the toad and embedding itself on its head.

The toad cried in pain as the sword dug deep into it's already cracked skull, desperately trying to reach its short arms up to its head to pull it out, but were unable to.

Arthur then ran at the sword with everything on the line, before jumping onto its slimy back and climbing up to where his word was, the toad shaking its body like bull at a rodeo, which Arthur responded by grabbing his trophy claw and using it like an ice pick to climb up the slimy shaky surface.

Arthur managed to pull himself up to the toad's head, where he quickly grabbed hold of his sword as if it were his last lifeline, which it might as well have been, before using all the strength he had and pushed the blade deep through the cracked skull and into the brain.

The toad gave one final croak before suddenly it went still as the silver blade pierced through its skull, and fell limp towards the ground.

Arthur let out a breath of relief as he pulled his sword out of the Toads skull, and jumped down to check on Gray, who seemed to be recovering from the paralysing venom.

"Aw man, that sucked," Gray said as he felt himself able to gain control of his limbs.

"You alright?" Arthur asked.

"A bit sore and can't feel my legs, but other than that I'm good," The Ice Mage responded as he sat there in the water, "What about Mamma Toad, you get her?"

"She's dead alright," The Witcher replied as he looked back to the body of the Mother Toad to see its muscles convulsing a bit, "Now one last thing."

Jogging over to the cave from where the mother came out of, Arthur saw a large shallow pool of water, filled to the brim with freshly laid eggs, and tadpoles of various stages.

'No doubt this is the nest,' He guessed.

Taking out the last of the explosive based bombs he had, Arthur placed them around crucial parts near the entrance of the cave, where he lit them all before running out of the cave in time to see them all detonate. The result was a small explosion which caused the opening of the cave to collapse along with a good portion of the inner sanctum, taking out a few of the eggs and young tadpoles. Even if a few survived, they would have no way outside and be trapped and essentially starve to death.

Mission complete.

 **[END]**

 _ **{THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN REVISED AS OF 06/23/2019}**_


	7. Chapter 7

After getting paid for their job and spending the night at the village, Arthur and Gray set out on the trail back to Magnolia. However, instead of taking the train or another form of transport, the resident ice mage had a different idea.

"And you're sure this is the right way back to the guild?" Arthur said as he pushed a branch out of the way while following his companion.

"Yeah, I've been through here a few times, it's about an hour faster this way than by train," Gray recalled as he made his way through the trail.

"If you say so," The Witcher responded, somewhat in disbelief of Gray's 'shortcut'.

He wished he had his horse with him; it would've made things easier he imagines.

Wonder what that thing is up to.

"By the way, you sure you're okay walking back on your own? You took a big hit back there," The ice mage asked, recalling how it looked as if his partner's spine almost snapped when they were fighting the giant toad.

"I took a potion yesterday when we fought that toad, so most of the damage is already healed," Arthur answered, "It just feels a bit sore, and there's some stinging, but I should be fine tomorrow."

Truth be told, It was a bit more than 'some' stinging, as Arthur was sure his spine was definitely fractured and his back badly bruised. His potions combined with his mutations may have helped null the pain and stop any internal bleeding he may have had yesterday, but he was going to have to take it easy for a few days and let his body heal back to one hundred percent.

Gray raised a brow at the idea that his new guildmate could create healing potions and wondered what other hidden talents he had but put the thought away for when they weren't in the middle of nowhere and back at the guild.

"Hey, hold up, I need to take a leak," Grey suddenly started as he took his top off.

"And you need to take your shirt off why?"

"Hang on; I'll be back in a minute," The ice wizard said, ignoring Arthur's comment as he discarded his top.

'I will never understand why he does that.'

A minute later, Arthur was leaning against the side of a tree, fiddling with his knife as he patiently waited for his partner to return.

At that moment, a massive explosion shook the forest, and Arthur looked up to see a rising cloud of smoke rising in the distance where Gray ran off to.

'Shit!'

Putting the knife away, Arthur kicked himself off the tree and sprinted off into the distance, hoping that Gray didn't stumble across some bandit camp or band of highwaymen.

Rushing through the foliage, Arthur spotted some commotion up ahead with his enhanced vision and could make out what looked like a fight going on, Gray being one of the participants.

Drawing his sword, Arthur rushed into the clearing to help out his partner and jumped into the fray, ready to assist.

He saw someone in the corner of his eye across from where Gray was and rushed over to them with his sword already in mid-swing.

And then stopped, eyes wide as he used all the strength he had in him to stop the momentum of his sword, just barely stopping it from cutting into the neck of a very familiar face.

"Whoah, Artie!?" Natsu cried as he felt razor sharp steel up against his jugular, "What the hell, man!"

"Natsu!" Arthur cried out as he looked at the pinkette, "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Arthur!? She says frantically," another familiar voice called out, "Where the heck did you come from, she asks curiously?"

"Lucy?" The Witcher said as he turned his head to see his blonde roommate off to the side and… sitting inside a clock?

"Don't forget me!" Happy called out as popped up from behind him, before landing on the black haired boy's head, "Also, please don't kill Natsu," He said in a rather casual tone, as Arthur had yet to take the blade off the Dragon Slayers neck.

* * *

"So you see something in the bushes, and your first thought is to attack it?" Arthur summarised what Natsu told him.

"What else was I supposed to do?" The pinkette asked with a shrug.

"How about check to see if anyone is there before accidentally setting them on fire?!" Lucy chastised, no longer inside the clock spirit thing, before turning towards Arthur and Gray "What are you two doing here anyway?"

"We're coming back from a job. There's a shortcut this way which leads back to the guild," Gray interjected.

"See, I told you!" Happy said as he floated up to the blonde, causing her to roll your eyes at how Happy believed he knew where he was going.

"Oh yeah, then how come your nose didn't smell Grey and Arthur!?" Lucy challenged.

"Some things you just don't want to smell."

"What's that supposed to mean!" Gray shouted towards the cat, while Arthur just raised his arm.

"Must be the monster blood," He muttered as he took a whiff of himself, making a mental note to clean his armour once he got back to Magnolia.

"You know what, who cares right now. We need to get back to the guild before we end up in trouble," Gray realised, confusing the others.

"Why would we be in trouble if we arrived late?" Arthur asked. They had already completed the job, and as far as he was concerned, there was no time limit on how long they needed to be out.

"Because Erza's going to be back soon," Gray said, his face going cold for a second at the mention of her name.

Both Natsu and happy soon shared the same expression, causing the two newest recruits to look at them with confusion.

"Wait, you don't mean the Erza, do you?" Lucy asked, amazed she was probably going to have the chance to meet such a legendary wizard.

"Who's Erza?" Arthur asked, wondering what the two were so afraid of, causing the others to look at him as if he was crazy.

"Seriously, you've never heard of her?" Lucy asked the Witcher. She may not know much about her, but she has heard of her multiple times through sorcerer weekly.

"This is a first for me."

"Erza's the strongest girl in Fairy Tail!" Happy explained.

"Doesn't tell me much about her. What's she like?" The Arthur asked, hoping to get a better perspective of who this Erza was.

"Scary…" Gray, Natsu and Happy all said together as they felt a chill crawl up their spine, surprising both Arthur and Lucy at how afraid they looked.

"like a wild animal," Gray added.

"A Vile beast!" Natsu argued

"A FULL ON MONSTER!" Happy cried out.

While Lucy shivered a bit at the image of a colossal monster crushing a small city, Arthur just crossed his arms and gave the three veteran mages a bit of a disbelieving look.

"What is she, an ogre?"

"Don't say that she could be listening!" Natsu scolded as he ran towards the Witcher and placed his hand over his mouth, whipping his head side to side as if she were nearby listening in on them.

"You know you guys aren't exactly making me excited to meet her," Lucy said with a hint of fear.

"I doubt she's that bad, they're probably overreacting," Arthur said as he smacked Natsu's hand away from him, "How about we focus on getting back to the guild."

"Yeah, that sounds nice," Lucy agreed, wanting to get some rest "Where to Happy?"

"This way!" Happy said as he pointed towards west.

"What? Are you guys dumb, we need to go this way," Gray said as he pointed towards the east.

"What're you talking about, Snowballs? You trying to get us lost?" Natsu challenged, having faith in his tiny blue friend.

"I'm trying to get us back to the guild, not to the other side of Fiore!"

"Well, who made you such a master of direction!?" The Dragonslayer demanded as he got into his rivals face.

"Don't need to be a master to know the right way to go, Flame Brain!" The Ice mage shouted back to the pinkette's face.

And so the two were back at it again, shouting childish insults back and forward, while Arthur Happy and Lucy sat on the sidelines watching it all play out.

"Shouldn't we stop this?" Lucy asked, thinking things were about to get physical soon.

"Nah, let them be," Happy answered, "They'll get tired eventually."

While the two rivals began to go back and forward with their childish insults, Arthur turned to Lucy and decided to see how she was doing.

"So, how'd the job go? I heard from the master the reward was raised."

"Yeah about that…" Lucy began as she twiddled her thumbs together, "Turns out the guy didn't even have the money to pay us in the first place."

"Isn't that illegal?" Arthur asked with some slight shock, imagining lying about a two million jewel award was nothing to laugh about.

"Probably, but honestly I don't think it mattered in the end," The blonde said, remembering the look on the clients face after she gave him the book, "We still completed the job and made the client happy, even If it meant being near that Duke Everloo creep."

"That bad?"

"I was called ugly by the man and tormented by what was basically a collection of trolls," Lucy deadpanned as the images of the maids flashed through her mind, still a bit mad at how they insulted her looks.

"Someone called you ugly?" Arthur asked, surprised at the thought as he gave a quick look over the blonde's face and voluptuous body, "Must've been blind."

"Eh?" Lucy muttered, slightly surprised by the words that came out of the stoic man's mouth.

Did he call her pretty?

"Oh uh… Thank you?"

"What for?"

While Lucy tried to think of a response, Happy managed to float up behind her, before whispering into her ear.

"He likes yooouuuu."

"KYA! Shut it, cat!" Lucy shrieked as she swiped at the cat.

Ignoring Happy's teasing, Arthur figured that he should probably get Gray and Natsu to break it up soon, so that way they could get back to the guild in time to get some rest and meet this Erza.

However, before he could move an inch, his medallion suddenly began to tug at his neck.

"What's wrong?" The blonde asked, noticing the look on Arthur's face, his eyes scanning the land like a hawk.

"Something's coming this way," He warned, raising his voice a bit so that everyone could hear him, eyes scanning the era and waiting for what was about to come.

Then it hit, the earth from beneath their feet exploded, causing everyone to stumble and a few to fall to the ground, while a cloud of dust obscured everyone's vision.

"Oh, what now!?" Lucy cried as she fell flat on her butt.

"Everyone alright?" Arthur asked as he shielded his eyes from the dust.

"Been better," Gray answered back as the clouds of dust began to disperse, showing he managed to stay unharmed.

"I'm okay, but Happy's gone!" Natsu shouted from his spot on the ground and pointed to a hole in the ground where the little blue cat once stood.

* * *

"Finally, MEAT!" A little grey creature cried with joy as he observed the latest catch.

He and a group of wizards, all of which were human except for a giant chicken in overalls, stood amongst a fire, where a very afraid and shaking happy was tied to a spit roast and hanging over a fire pit ready to be lit.

"No more berries, finally some protein!" One of the wizards, a man with orange hair spat out.

"H-hey wait! You don't want to eat me!" Happy cried, thinking of an excuse which could save him from being food, "I-I mean I smell pretty bad!"

"I could care less what you smell like; I just want your flesh is all!" The grey one shouted.

"Yeah, but… I have to go to the bathroom!" The blue cat called out, thinking of a way to get himself free.

"Who cares? Just cook him already!" The other orange haired man complained.

The chicken gave out a few clucks, before taking his staff and using it to light the fire.

"I'll take mine medium rare please," A wizard dressed in black and purple holding a crystal ball asked politely.

"HEY YOU JERKS!" A loud voice cried out.

The group of wizards looked up to see a group of teens standing above the peak above them, each glaring down at the group.

"That's our friend you're trying to cook there, let him go!" Natsu demanded.

"Buzz off brats, we're starving here!" The little grey one shouted, annoyed his stomach has yet to get anything to eat.

"Who the heck are you, what guild are you apart of!?" Grey yelled to the group, eager to know whose ass to kick after they level these guys.

"None of your business, now scram!"

"Looks like peace talks have broken down," Arthur said as he cracked his neck, sword already in his hand.

"I call dibs on tweedle dee and tweedle dumb over there," Gray called as he looked over at the two gingers, "You two deal with the rest."

"Don't tell me what to do!" Natsu said back as he ran towards the short, grey-haired one.

"Fine, I'll take chicken wings then," Arthur said as he slid down the hill ready for a fight.

"I'll get Happy!" Lucy figured as she didn't want to fight right now.

As everyone went off to deal with their respective opponents, Arthur looked to see the Chicken man holding a large wooden staff, and pointed it directly at him.

No sooner did a small concentrated stream of fire come blazing towards him, causing the raven-haired Witcher to cross his wrists and activate his sign hastily.

The fire encased him for a split second, making Arthur feel as if he was locked in a raging furnace while the small force that came with it caused him to dig his heels to the ground to avoid being pushed back.

The fire then passed over him, letting Arthur lay his hands down before immediately rushing for the chicken man, who had a look of shock at the fact that he had just taken a full blast of fire dead on and looked no worse for wear.

Arthur managed to close the distance between himself and the chicken man as he begins to try and cast another spell and immediately went in for a swing, he intends that he could cut into the Chicken man's neck and stop him.

However, luck seemed to not shine on him today.

His semi-broken back began to act up due to his movements, and a brisk pain shot through him while in mid-swing. His swing was off balance, and for a second, he lost his footing and stumbled slightly, leaving himself wide open.

'Fuck!' Arthur cried, mentally from the pain.

The chicken man saw this and grinned at what he believed to be a rookie mistake, before taking his staff and hastily shoving it into his would-be attacker's chest, before firing a bolt of fire point blank.

Arthur felt himself flying through the air before landing on the ground and sliding back a few feet, adding more to the pain in his back and causing him to lose his grip on his sword, which flew out of his hand.

"Arthur!" Lucy cried out as she saw her roommate take a hit, while also finally freeing happy from his bonds.

Though she had other problems to worry about now, as since the Chicken man had nothing holding him back at the moment, he decided that now would be a great time to see about getting some meat, and looked over to both the blonde and blue cat with a bit of drool leaking from his mouth.

Meanwhile, as Arthur laid there on the ground in pain, a dark figure loomed over him. Arthur looked up to see the final member of the group, the skinny one with the orb, looming over him with a dark look in his eyes as his ball shined with power.

Feeling a magic attack coming, Arthur hasty crossed his wrists and awaited the fierce, deadly atta-

"The stars show great misfortune with well-endowed women in your life," The mage said in a monotone voice as he looked into his orb.

… Huh?

Blinking as the mage just stood there doing nothing, Arthur quickly reached for his knife before stabbing the man above him in the thigh, causing him to drop his orb and fall to his knees with a high pitch scream.

Arthur then quickly shot to his feet, hissing as he felt a pinch on his back and punched the man across the face, instantly knocking him to the floor unconscious.

While his opponent laid there on the floor, Arthur turned back to see the chicken man holding Lucy and happy in one hand, with his staff in the other ready to roast them alive.

Reaching for his crossbow, Arthur fired a standard bolt at the chicken man, the sharp tip piercing through the chickens' hand and causing him to drop both his hostages and his staff so that he could hold and attempt to nurse his damaged one.

Believing he had no time to get his sword, Arthur made a b-line over to the wizard, gritting his teeth as he felt his back began to sting, before letting out a war cry as he approached the chicken man.

Alerted by the scream, the chicken man stopped holding his hut hand for a second to see the Witcher approaching him, and had no time to react as Arthur made an Aard sign and thrust his hand into the chicken man's chest.

The shockwave sent him flying back as if he were hit by a truck, flying more than meters backwards before collapsing onto the ground unconscious.

"The hell?" Arthur muttered as he saw how far the chicken man flew.

Sure, Aard could be a great sign if he concentrated enough, he knew that. Though never before had he cast one able to send someone flying like that.

Shaking the thought away for not to focus on the picture at hand, Arthur walked up to the man with his other sword out and looked down to see that he was very much unconscious with a rather large bump on the back of his head.

'Since when was Aard that powerful?' He thought to himself as he looked at his hand for a second before a more pressing matter reinstated itself in his mind.

"You two, alright?" Arthur asked both Lucy and Happy, who were looking up at the Witcher with wide eyes.

"Y-yeah, I'm okay," Lucy answered in slight awe at the power Arthur displayed in front of her, while Happy just nodded his head.

After gathering all the mages up, the gang had decided to tie them to a tree to keep them from running off, with Lucy standing nearby to keep watch, Happy standing nearby her for the time being.

"Here, I saw you get hit by that chicken guy," Gray said as he walked up to the Witcher, holding a small chunk of ice he conjured up, "It should help with the burn."

"Thanks," Arthur said as he took the chunk and began to undo some of the straps to his armour and coat to put it over the wound.

The Witcher let out a hiss as he felt the ice make contact with his skin. It was nothing severe thanks to his armour taking most of the heat, but a small part of his skin was burnt slightly.

"You sure you're alright from yesterday? You looked like you had a rough time back there?"

"Old wounds were just acting up, nothing too serious," Arthur waved off, seeing no need for Gray to get involved, "Trust me, I'm fine. I'll be better tomorrow."

Gray held a small frown at how untrusting and antisocial Arthur was, and was about to comment how he should start trusting his guildmates more, but was stopped when he noticed Arthur glancing down and asking a crucial question.

"Where are your pants?" He asked, not liking how close he was now that he was nearly nude.

"Huh?" Gray asked, looking down at himself to see that he was indeed down to his underwear, "The hell, when did this happen?!"

`You got to be kidding me,' Arthur thought to himself as he watched Gray fumble around and tried to locate his clothes.

"Geez, what are you doing, trying to scare Army away!?" Natsu yelled towards his rival."

"What was that, lava nuts!?" The raven-haired shot back to his rival, no longer concerned where his clothes were.

No sooner were the two back at it again, butting heads and sending childish insults at each other, causing the Witcher to let out a sigh.

"L-lullaby."

Whipping his head to the side, Arthur looked to see that the short grey man was now semi-conscious, and was seemingly mumbling something to Lucy, which his enhanced hearing was able to pick up.

"Lullaby…"

'Lullaby?' The Witcher thought, pondering as to what the man was talking about.

Then he was interrupted, as he felt a sudden tug at his neck.

Quickly glancing down at his chest, Arthur saw that his amulet was now pulsing and widened his eyes as he saw a dark somewhat physical shadow on the ground approaching the tree the dark mages were tied too, and where Lucy was.

"Lucy!" Arthur yelled as he dropped the ice; he was holding and ran forward and tackled her out of the way in time. Not even a second later a sizeable shadowy hand appeared around the tree, seemingly grasping it and pulling it and the dark mages tied to it underground and sending up a cloud of dust and dirt, while happy was blown away slightly but managed to remain unharmed.

"What the hell was that!?" Gray asked as he saw the whole thing go down.

"You mean, who was that!" Natsu corrected, his eyesight picking up someone off in the distance.

As the cloud of dust started to clear, Arthur looked over to see that the mages tied to it were now six feet under, while any sign of whoever was responsible was long gone by now.

"Uh, A-Arthur," Lucy muttered, gaining the Witcher's attention.

Looking down, Arthur saw that he was still laying on top of Lucy, his body pressing onto hers while their faces were only a few inches apart, causing the blonde to gain a little blush.

"Could you... maybe get off of me?"

"Oh, right," The Witcher said as he hastily pushed himself off the blonde, and turned to the tree the mages were tied too.

They were long gone by now, having been dragged through the ground by whoever cast that spell and far out of their reach.

"Dammit, who the hell was that!?" Natsu demanded in anger.

"I don't know, but whoever it was I can no longer sense them," Gray added, trying to find where whoever did this fled too.

"Well, whoever it was, they didn't want us talking to them," Arthur figured, "I heard them mention something about a Lullaby."

"Lullaby," Lucy muttered to herself, "Why does that sound so familiar?"

"We'll have to worry about that later," Gray interrupted, "We still need to get back to the guild. If we hurry, we can make it before sundown.

"Well, at least Happy's okay," Natsu said, trying to look up at the bright side of today.

"Aye," The cat replied as he floated down upon the pinkette's hair.

With nothing left for them here, the group began making their way back to Magnolia, while Arthur stopped to give the bloodied sunken tree a final glance, instinct telling them that this was not the last time they would be done dealing with whoever killed them.

'Lullaby...' He thought to himself, already knowing that this was no doubt going to come up again soon.

 **[END]**


End file.
